Power of the Mind
by Kurush Wuzurg
Summary: On his side: A dangerous alliance. Items that hold much mystery. Whilst the world is brought slowly to the brink of war...He gets hooked up? On her side: Stuck on a different world, with few friends and a new master. And a prophecy is being unraveled...
1. It all Begins

**A/N: I found a new way of making the stories be better; you write down the arcs themselves among your notes. It helps me a great deal anyway. Btw, I do not own Negima. You figure out what I do own yourselves.**

**Edit: I got addressed with so many grammatical problems on this chapter, so I decided to edit. Hope you'll enjoy this one better.**

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Chapter 1

_Everything is burning. The academy, the city, the World Tree, everything just burned down to ash. She is running. She awoke to this chaos. She found most of her classmates dead. Yue, the cheerleaders, Chisame-san. They were all dead. What happened to the others or Negi-sensei for that matter, she doesn't know. All that mattered to her right now was to run for her life._

_The screams are unimaginable all around her. Screams of terror, battle and death circle around her wherever she runs, as if she is the source of it._

_She spots Ayaka and Setsuna fighting a desperate battle against the attackers to protect Konoka. She can't see their shapes, only that they are humanoid and that they have swords of an unusual shape__, whereas only Setsuna has her trusted blade Yuunagi ready. Ayaka holds her ground against the attackers with her mixed martial arts style but against these foes, you need fighting styles to kill, not to disable._

_Setsuna is the first to fall, face down with one of the attackers' blade in her back. Konoka screams in sheer horror as her childhood friend dies a brutal death and decides to screw secrecy as a mage and attempts to revive her friend. Ayaka kicks one of them in the stomach, only to fail notice one of them coming up behind her and hitting her on the head with his/her fists formed as a hammer. The others move in on Konoka, grabbing her arms and pulling her away from Setsuna, whom Konoka finds to her pain to be dead and gone for good. She attempts to struggle, only to find it in vain to make resistance. Those who knocked out Ayaka pick her and carry her off. Konoka spots the observant and calls out to her. One of those who are not busy carrying off the girls looks at the same way as Konoka and spots the quiet observant, who begins to run away from the scene. The attacker begins to pursue but is held back by another who motions to the limp body of Setsuna._

_She continues to run away, hearing the screams of Konoka behind her. She sheds tears over the death of Setsuna and that Konoka and Ayaka has been taken alive. What happens to Setsuna's body, she doesn't know. In fact she doesn't want to know. The thought make her shiver. But what about Negi-sensei? Negi-sensei could have gone to the same fate as Setsuna!_

_When she takes out her pactio card, she is relieved to find that the card was still alive. Now all that mattered was to find him. Chachamaru, God knows what has happened to her, had shown everyone else how to activate the pin badges in order to find someone else with a similar badge. _

_Signals are all around her. Two are behind her, that's Konoka and Setsuna, may she rest in peace and happiness, so that rules them out. Two more are at the dorm, that's Yue and Chisame. They're dead, so no good. Three others show up at Library Island but that's too far. One signal show up strongly at the ruined World Tree so there she has a chance of getting help._

_Running towards the stump of the giant magic tree, she notices that the streets are mostly empty. Maybe the attackers had left Mahora and were moving on? Patrols still roamed the streets; she could tell that by using her ears. But the city was ruined. Dead bodies littered the streets, several burned while few had been literally torn apart. Not one body seemed to be intact._

_The sound of swords clashing together draws her attention. The sound comes from the base of the World Tree, where the lone signal comes from too. Perhaps it's Asuna. Or maybe Yuuna. She can't tell who it is, or who is winning for that matter._

_When she arrives at the site, she finds Negi-sensei holding a sword similar to the attackers and facing a tall figure with obscured features and wielding a blade of these attackers. Around the two strong fighters, there are the limp bodies of Takahata-sensei, a few martial artists she remembered from the Mahora festival and mostly of the attacking forces. She can't tell but she could have sworn that the tall figure was smiling diabolically._

_Negi charges at the figure with his sword at his right side while the figure raises his blade as if to throw it. When Negi comes at his feet, the figure jumps up and plunged the blade into Negi's back. The wound isn't lethal but it is enough to make him fall down and the blade is still in the back._

_The figure notice her watching with fright in her eyes, and his eyes – eye – begin to glow and she can see a definitive smile on his lips._

Miyazaki Nodoka woke up in a silent gasp, hurtling her own body upwards as up as she can. She looks around to find herself in her own room. When she checks the upper bunk, she finds Yue sound asleep and Haruna sleeps on the loft as well. Nodoka gives a slight thanks to whatever religion she believes in that it was just a nightmare. If only it wasn't so scary. She wanted to see if Negi-sensei was okay too but it was in the middle of the night. It would be rude to just walk in.

Nodoka takes up an old diary, the one she had before getting her artefact, and starts to write for the first time after so long time.

_January __14__th__ 2004_

_Dear Diary_

_The clock says 4.__47 in the morning. Just moments ago, I had the worst nightmare out of three this past month. The first one was flames around me and Negi-sensei was mortally wounded, with a tall figure standing over him. The second one was that I woke up to find several of my classmates dead. This last one was had put the first two together, and added more scenes to it all. I saw Setsuna-san die fighting to protect Konoka-san and that Mahora Academy was in ruins. Worst of all, the figure from my first nightmare had come back. He keeps haunting me, and I get the feeling that this person is real. Whoever he is, he is after me._

_I haven't told Negi-sensei or anyone else about this. I'm considering going to the church for a confession again. The priest was very kind last time. But lately I've been hearing voices in my head when others can't hear a thing. Yue has been asking me questions about it, but I merely shrug it off as a headache._

_I really need to get to sleep. I can't believe that it has been nearly a year since I wrote in this diary._

With her entry finally done, Nodoka closes the diary and prepares to go to bed. But then, she remembered something she had to do. She had gotten something for today. She opened the desk and picked up a little purple box with strings wrapped around it. She added a note to the string and quietly walked out the door. Walking down the corridor, she eventually reached the door that said:

Room 665 Naba, Chizuru

Murakami, Natsumi

Yukihiro, Ayaka

Nodoka put the little purple box down in front of the door so the door would hit the box when it opened. Next time someone opened the door, they would notice the box. Nodoka walks back to her room as quiet as she can, and just when she reach her door, the door next to her opens, with Asuna coming out in her normal clothes and winter jacket.

"Honya-chan? What are you doing up so early?"

"Ah, sorry, Asuna-san. Did I wake you?" the shy librarian asked the magically immune girl who had a fearsome kick.

"No, I was just going out on my paper routine. I have to cover up for my absence yesterday." Asuna then got a little vicious idea of her own that involved the little young mage standing in front of her.

"...Say, Honya-chan?"

"Yes?"

"How about you go to bed with Negi while I'm gone?" The red head asked the purple haired girl. She completely expected Nodoka's first reaction to the proposal which was the usual minor panic of a girl who had a crush on a boy.

"W-w-wh-what are you saying, Asuna-san?" Nodoka asked her friend, who had not the nicest of grins on her face. Asuna looked very scary at the moment.

"Come now, I know you like him and all, but you haven't really…progressed with him ever since Ostia. I'm actually offering you a chance to increase your standing with him here. Well?" Asuna said opening the door to her room and Negi's futon. Nodoka could help but blush with a fury she didn't know that she could have. _Going to bed with Negi-sensei? How can I do that? Hang on, why am I going in there in the first place!_

Her brain said no but her body thought otherwise. Nodoka walked slowly into the room and Asuna closed the door silently behind her. She then pumped a fist into the air. She couldn't really believe that Nodoka actually agreed to go into the same bed as Negi! Asuna hadn't expected it honestly but she wanted to quell the rumours about her and Negi having a romantic relationship. So by having Honya-chan being Negi's futon for once would help quell those rumours for a while. Checking her clock, Asuna ran off to her job.

Nodoka's body had forced itself into the room where Asuna, Konoka and Negi slept together. Her brain tried desperately to retake control but the body had too much willpower to let the brain take control again. It gently stalked the floor until she saw the beds. Konoka slept peacefully in her bunk. She seemed completely peaceful, as opposite to that horrific nightmare Nodoka had moments ago. She immediately told herself that it was just a bad dream. And upwards next to Asuna's bunk by the loft, was Negi. He looked very cute while sleeping. Nothing like the dark magus he really was. That was something Nodoka definitely loved about him. One day, he's the most determined magic fighter who can defeat anyone, the next he is the nicest thing in the world. If only he didn't hold back on his attacks on the opponents he faces.

Negi stirred in his sleep but didn't wake up, leaving his futon undone, so she could sneak into it without making too much of a disturbance. This time she had full control again over the body. But as soon as she tried to move away, Negi moved over and barely grasped at Nodoka's back, making her slightly jump and nearly fall down to the floor. It was a good thing that she worked at Library Island, because it allowed her to instinctively catch the best ledge. Otherwise she'd have hit the ground and woke up both of them. When she looked again, Negi's position was just begging for her to climb in. That and he was cute like you wouldn't believe. She eventually gave in and climbed in.

Later, Asuna would come in to walk in on the trio, a Konoka excited over the fact that Nodoka made such a bold move on her own, a Negi both frightened and shocked over Nodoka's presence in the room and Nodoka apologizing several times about being in Negi's futon. This was going to be one of those days again.

* * *

The school lesson was quite interesting at least. It started with Asuna and Ayaka having a "fair" way of settling things this time. When Ayaka had been told about magic from both Negi and Asuna, her reaction was that of a Christian coming home to find God sitting on their couch at first. Since then, the two friends at war had decided to make a deal whenever there was going to be a fight. Asuna would not use any of her special powers, Kanka or artefact and Ayaka wouldn't try to use any dirty tricks. Instead, they would resolve to good arm wrestling for starters and then it would go downhill from there. Afterwards, Negi would randomly pick someone out of the class to read a sentence; the first was actually Chisame this time. The secret net idol was reluctant to do so but she pulled it off, slightly. She had come to grow somewhat fond of having the ten year old mage as a teacher, but she still wanted out of this whole magic business.

Other girls were different. Take the sport girls for example, and Natsumi too. With the exception of Akira, all of them were learning magic and most had pactio cards with Negi. They did play a vital part in the battle against Fate Averruncus among the ruins of Ostia. Ako and Akira had little trouble dealing with one of Fate's Ministra. Kaede and Kotaro didn't mind the sound waves from Shirabe's fiddle artefact. Setsuna was finally ready after seven days to face her counterpart Tsukuyomi, and with Konoka and Yuna at her side, the psychopathic lesbian blood knight was beaten. Finally it came to a showdown between Negi and Fate whom they had identified as Tertium or "the Third." After a long duel and with Nodoka reading Fate's mind and Asuna giving him assistance, Negi managed to beat Fate, burying him under a mountain of rubble caused by their battle. Eventually the Ala Alba along with a few others, namely Takahata-sensei and Mana, along with Misora, Takane D. Goodman and Mei Sakura managed to get to use the portal, leaving Fate's party shaken and beaten with their leader gone.

When they all got back, they had to make an explanation to the headmaster and to Evangeline as to why they were gone for so long. They kept the Magia Erebia a secret from the dean, but when Evangeline found out, she laughed like a drain, and also liked the fact that Negi actually had the balls to go for something so dangerous. Though afterwards she gave Negi the fight of his life with her **own** version of it. Poor Negi. He was VERY lucky to have two really good healers by his side.

Yue had also come back to them after a long explanation and finally gaining her memory back about nearly everything. Her friends from Ariadne were reluctant to let her go but Yue would not forget them and made a promise to come back next summer break. Collet took it the hardest because Yue was her first real friend for a long time and they both became top students and top rank combatants in school. But she eventually agreed and made a vow to be the best mage knight Valkyrie the academy had yet to see.

Once things had settled down, Ala Alba became larger with the sport girls and Natsumi as well as Takane and Mei signing up for the group. The 3-A assignments were obvious though Takane and Mei had their own reasons for joining too. When asked about it, Misora turned them down, saying that she just wanted to live a simple life, not a danger filled one with monsters and enemy magi jumping out of the shadows to get you all the time. Guess it makes sense when one is talking about Negi's way of living.

It was now, nearly five months since the battle in Ostia. They haven't heard or seen anything from Fate and a sense of belief that the believed construct was dead for good. It had led them to drop their guard for now and go on with their normal lives for now. The only thing that remained from their time spent there was the regular shipment of money out of Negi's wages. Racan wasn't joking when he said he wanted payment. About half of Negi's salary went to the large greedy mercenary. Just what was the big guy doing with all that cash anyway?

Inside Eva's resort, they all did what they would normally do. Only things were more advanced. Asuna had gone from kendo training to learning how to use the Kankahō cannon like Takahata does. Konoka and Nodoka were learning how to use magic arrows properly with Yue helping them out. Yuna, Ako, Makie and Natsumi had joined in on magic training each focusing on their chosen area. Ako was obviously the new healer, taking part lessons from Konoka. Yuna specialised more in combat magic, such as arrows, disarmament and the more advanced storm spells. Despite her being behind magic studies, she was progressing well. Makie was more into focusing magic into the body, making her body more swift and agile and also a lot stronger. Natsumi on the other hand tried her best at all of them but she found that transformation magic could help her get rid of the freckles. Though Kotarou once pointed out that the freckles is what made her cute. He didn't get a thankful reception for that. Akira, the tall quiet swimmer did not choose magic. Instead she handled Chi, the physical energy within the human body. She was inferior to Kaede and Ku Fei, but she was catching up. Her own physical strength was something that the Chi users were jealous of though. Kotarou didn't mind though, he liked that they had such a strong ally. He figured that if she managed to channel her Chi, Akira could easily beat any of them. She just needed another six months. For the moment, she kept on focusing on breaking rocks and force opening doors.

* * *

"_Gee, your training is slow. Can't imagine you managed to last this long." _The voice had returned to Nodoka's head on her way back to the dorm rooms. Every now and then, this voice would come to her. It didn't bother her in her sleep because that's when the nightmares roamed. But the voice is more frightening to her.

"You again… why now? What do you want?" the shy librarian asks the other residence inside her head.

"_Again with that question? You really don't want me in here… __I'm just trying to be friendly here." _The voice said softly with a sense of being sorry.

"Sending me nightmares and disturbing me in class is not being friendly, voice-san." Nodoka pointed remembering that time outside class with Akashi-sensei.

"_How was I supposed to know that magic is such a big secret? Sorry for making you blurt it out like that."_

Nodoka heard a sigh inside her head and guessed that the voice or whoever it belonged to was getting a bit annoyed. Either he didn't like his position bothering her time these past weeks, or he was just tired. Nodoka felt inclined to go with the former option.

"What do you want to talk about this time?" Nodoka asked this voice which belonged to someone she has never met before. She also made sure to see if anybody else was in the vicinity. When there was nobody close, she asked the voice, "Sorry, could you repeat what you said?"

"_I said, it is about your latest nightmare this time. What was it like?"_

Nodoka described the dream she had the last night, and as always the voice was interested in what she had to tell. Every now and then, it would ask a question about something she told it, and it would wait politely while she answered it.

"_Man, that was some heavy dream you had. It's a good thing that I haven't had any dinner yet."_

"Yes, and I- Wait, you're a real person?" Nodoka asked the voice. For the first time, this voice had actually exposed itself for being a real person.

"_Oh, screw my tongue and call me Frank! I wasn't supposed to do that!"_ The voice screams inside her head, making sure she doesn't get a headache from it. Nodoka takes a moment to think this over. All this time, the voice had been an actual person and not an imagination of her own. She had figured that the voice was connected to her nightmares, but she didn't understand it entirely.

"Nodoka? Are you okay?" A voice behind her startled the shy librarian. Upon hearing that there was another one there, the voice which called itself Frank excused itself. _"I got to go."_

Nodoka turned around to find her classmate Chizuru. The two of them had somehow grown together during these last few months. Only last week, Chizuru had helped Nodoka take care of some rude men who was intruding on school property and ignoring library rules. The four men were quickly tamed the hard way by the busty young Chizuru who slapped them all hard and told them with what Nodoka thought to be her angry voice to go home. The guys hurried quietly off from the library before being discovered by Takahata-sensei. Nodoka owed her a favour since then.

"Are you okay, Nodoka? You seemed a little…off." The more mature looking of the two looked nearly down on her new friend. Being a mother figure, she couldn't help but be like this.

"I'm fine, Chizuru-san. Just another headache of mine tormenting me again." The shy librarian replied but Chizuru didn't buy it. But she didn't want to push it any further then she already is. Nodoka then found herself outside the dorm rooms. No wonder that Chizuru found her.

"Okay, if that's what you say." Chizuru said with doubt in her voice. The two of them went inside.

"I didn't get to say thank you for that gift you gave me this morning." Chizuru continued as they went up the stairs. Nodoka had to do some thinking before she remembered what her classmate was talking about. "Oh that. It's nothing really. I just had to find someone who could make it."

Chizuru giggled before taking up her hand to show it. "Well, you have good design taste, Nodoka. Where did you get the idea?" she asked. On her left index finger was a copy of Nodoka's Comptina Daemonia ring. Except that it lacked the wings that the original magic ring had.

"Well back in Britain, I found a jewellery store, and my own ring" Nodoka held up hers, "was on display there, so I decided to buy it. After you helped me with those rude men in the library, I felt like I had to give you something in return."

"Felt like you had to buy it so Negi-kun would notice you?" Chizuru asked with a giggle holding up a hand to 'attempt' to hide it. Although her intention was to make Nodoka hear it.

Nodoka blushed again, remembering the embarrassing moment she had this morning with Negi and Konoka to testify that she had crawled into his bed.

"Why do people keep saying that to me all the time? I don't like it when you do that." Nodoka whined in front of her friend.

"Because you like him, Nodoka." Chizuru pointed out for her. "And there is a certain rumour in class that he likes you too." At this, the librarian girl blushed furiously and the idea of them being a couple just made it worse.

"I've got to get up early in the morning, Chizuru-san. Library work, first thing in the morning." Nodoka excused herself, as they reached their section of the dorm rooms. As soon as she entered her own room, Chizuru went to the cheerleader's room and knocked on the door. Out came Sakurako. Chizuru handed over a 1000 yen bill to her. "You were right, she did blush." She said. When Sakurako closed her door, Chizuru went to her own dorm, possibly to try and fondle Kotarou again when nobody was looking.

**

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A/N: Whew, that felt good having to edit. I hope I didn't miss anything on it. Okay, for first timers here, let me be blunt and tell you that the first display was Horrible. According to Chaos Productions, this was so. I owe thanks to him that I'm getting better. And things will get better later on, I guarantee. Don't mind the minor plot things if it bothers you, but do remember that you should recall these things when they're brought up again in the story.**


	2. Dream Investigation

**A/N: ****Okay I've received requests of more crossovers in this story. I must admit that I will not accept any requests of crossovers whatsoever, so you will have to endure what I've got. Sorry for the inconvenience. Furthermore, this will be the only time I will say I do not own Negima. If I wrote it every time I posted a chapter, it would just be stupid.**

Chapter 2: It gets worse

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Later that night, about 02:00 or later, a knock came on the door to Nodoka, Haruna and Yue's room. Yue had stayed up late because she was expecting whoever was coming, and she knew who it was. When she opened the door, Negi and Asuna entered the room. They were both dressed for daily business, Negi in his casual green suit, and Asuna in her school uniform.

"Evening, Negi-sensei, Asuna-san." Yue said out of reflex for the two of them when they entered. Haruna had fallen deep asleep on her sketch desk, still holding her pen in her right hand and snoring quietly. In the bottom bunk of the bed was Nodoka, moving slowly around in the bunk, indicating that she has a nightmare going on right now.

"Are you sure about this, Yue-san? I kind of feel bad about peeking into somebody's dream, and when it's Nodoka-san, well…" Negi started but then he remembered something embarrassing and started blushing to himself. Asuna noticed him and pulled his cheek. "What are you blushing about, Negi?" She received the usual 'Nothing!' as a response.

"Negi-sensei. It's important that we do this. Nodoka has been keeping things secret from us and I for one do not want that to continue." Yue stated a bit harshly to her teacher despite the fact that they were whispering. Haruna snorted from her desk, and a paper from the desk fell down to the floor. Asuna picked it up and it showed a drawing of something probably involving yaoi because she ripped it to pieces shortly afterwards.

"Let's just get this over with. I want to go sleep in my own bunk so I can deliver newspapers tomorrow."

"Right." Negi stated and the three of them went over Nodoka's bunk. Underneath the bunk bed they could see a magic circle. Yue had been preparing for this for some time it would seem.

"I was expecting for Negi-sensei to do the spell. I could always do it myself, but it would be rude." Yue said. Then she added "That and I don't know the right spell to use."

Negi raised his hands in response and began it. "Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister, Nympha Somnii, Regina Maeve! Portam Aperiens ad Se Nos Alliciat!"

_

* * *

In the middle of the __street, fire was everywhere and students and teachers alike ran for their lives. Sounds of battle were occasional in several places. Negi, Asuna and Yue could barely believe their own eyes. This is what Nodoka dreamt about? A dream where Death seemed to reign and war had broken out? But in the midst of all this chaos, Yue found out one shocking thing first._

"_How come that we are all naked here?!" She screamed out due to the presence of a boy in the vicinity, and tired desperately to cover herself up. Asuna didn't bother because once you absorbed it in five minutes, there's no need to bother. Plus, both she and Negi has seen each other naked a couple of times already._

"_It's something technical according to what Negi once told me." Asuna assured her, though that didn't do much to help Yue calm down. Then Negi remembered his status as a British gentleman and covered up himself._

"_Come on, let's find Nodoka in this mess and then find out the problem." Yue said, glaring half fully at Negi's body with a blush Negi didn't catch and Asuna didn't really understand why. As they looked around, they found that the World Tree had been stumped; the main academy buildings have been demolished and the city was burning in the distance. They couldn't find anyone they know from the class, but the sounds were everywhere._

_Finally they found the church, but outside the holy building, they also saw something terrible. In an act of sheer blasphemy and cruelty, the invaders had crucified Sister Shakti and Misora on crosses, their nun outfits in rags, to the extent that they were only just wearable or they'd be in their underwear. It was already too late for Shakti, as her blank eyes showed that she was already dead. Misora barely hanged on to life, looking miserable forward, observing a battle taking place between two humans, one a mage and the other a chi user, against a whole group of eight invaders. It was at the church that Negi, Asuna and Yue saw their target._

"_Misora-san!" Nodoka shrieked as she saw the scene before the church. She was dressed in her school uniform, torn at the shoulder. Misora merely bobbed her at Nodoka's direction and responded weakly._

"_Honya-chan? Is that you?" Her voice was raspy and weak, a sign of a dried mouth that had tasted blood. She chuckled slightly despite her pain. "To think… I knew that magic business would kill me someday… But I never thought that it would happen while we were all here in school."_

_Nodoka moved to try and get her friend down, but Misora stopped. "Don't. It's no use… I'm done for anyway. But at least I can go out with a bit of happiness. They promised to keep the church intact…" Misora coughed up a small of blood from her mouth, and looked upwards as tears ran down her cheeks. "I can see Him… heheheh… Never saw the purpose of the Trinity anyway…__(1)__" Then her head fell down, her eyes were open, and a weak smile on her face. Nodoka backed away from the crosses as she realizes that she had just seen another classmate die, this one painfully and slowly. Tears filling up in her eyes, Nodoka ran away from the scene. The watching trio followed suit._

"_So let me get this straight" Asuna said as they followed their haunted classmate/student. "In these nightmares that Honya-chan's been having, she's seen us been killed and badly wounded, then those who doesn't fight are taken as slaves and transported to Kami-sama knows where?"_

"_Apparently so." Negi said. "But it doesn't make sense. Nodoka-san has always been calm except when it comes to boys, why would she have depressive dreams right now?"_

"_We could always run a diagnostic on her, providing she agrees to it." Yue said as they followed Nodoka to the plaza in front of the World Tree. There she stopped to witness a battle._

_The dream Negi was holding the sword from the previous dream, Asuna, Yuuna holding their weapons, stood together with him against the shadow guy from the first nightmare Nodoka had. Completely draped in shadows despite there were flames and carnage everywhere that lit up the place, he grasped a sword of his kind as well. And his right eye shined brightly from his face._

_Negi, Asuna and Yuuna charged at him, and he quickly sprung to action. As Negi swinged his sword at him, he knocked the boy mage aside with a kick to the face, then dodged Asuna's humongous sword with his, then punched Yuuna aside before grabbing half of Asuna's face and threw her to the ground. Then he received a hit from Negi from behind, and while he turned to attack Negi, Yuuna pierced his stomach with her sword.__(2__) The figure could deal with the boy later, because he grabbed Yuuna by the throat and squeezed tight. Then he threw Yuuna towards the rails in which her back made a sickening crack, before she slumped to the ground._

"_Yuuna!" The dream Asuna shouted before performing a shundo to her side and checked Yuuna. No movement. Asuna's heart sank at first. Then rage filled it to the brink of bursting point. In two swift moves, Asuna had activated her Kanka, made a shundo between Negi and the figure and then gave the figure a point blank blast with the cannon she had mastered. The figure was knocked back hard and slammed into the staircase, where a 10-foot deep hole was made where he had landed not so smoothly._

"_Gotcha! That was for Yuuna!" She shouted after waiting three seconds for any movement from the hole. Nodoka left out a breath she didn't know she had, and she went to Negi and Asuna, who was heading to pick up Yuuna, who was surprisingly still alive. Unfortunately, the peace was very short-lived, as Nodoka and the speculators noticed that rubble in the hole began to move outwards. Nodoka proceeded to scream 'Watch out!', but before she opened her mouth, the figure was out of the hole and had cut Asuna's head clean off her shoulders. Negi saw and as Asuna's body along with Yuuna fell down to the ground, he charged blind fully, failing to notice that the figure had appeared behind and gave a punch to the back, knocking him down to the ground just as the girls hit the ground._

_Negi tried to get up but the figure stomped him there, and placed himself in front of Negi, his sword held to thrust. "You could have just don't." The figure said._

_Then he stuck._

* * *

They all were knocked back by the effect of the dream they had just witnessed. They were all breathing heavily as they rose from the floor and tried to configure at least a first diagnostic of the dream.

"What do you guys think of that?" Negi asked trying to help Asuna up, who was opening and closing her mouth like a fish on open ground. She's clearly been more shocked than the other ones. It's not every day one gets to see their own beheading.

"Such a dream can mean various things…either you're really screwed in your mind…" Yue said, trying to get a grip on logic. "Or it could be some sort of precognition, like you see what is going to happen. Those cases are rare but they-"

"Oh no. Oh no, I am NOT getting my head cut off! I won't let that happen!" Asuna shouted at last when she heard the word 'precognition'. She may be a baka, but she does know what some words mean.

"Uh, guys?" Haruna called from her seat on the desk.

"Oh, did we wake you? Sorry about that." Negi said with his hand on the back of his head.

"It's not that." Haruna responded and pointed towards the bunk bed. All three of them turned to find that Nodoka was also awake.

"Were you…watching?"

* * *

The next day, things went as usual in class. However, half-way through class, Shizuna-sensei came and opened the door to 3-A's classroom.

"Sorry to disturb your lesson, Negi-sensei, but the dean would like to see Miyazaki-kun. Something about a therapy session."

Confused about all this, Nodoka went with Shizuna-sensei to the dean's office. Upon arrival there, she found that there were several books on therapy. The dean seemed nearly exhausted after probably reading that amount of books. "Ah, come in Nodoka-kun."

"Dean? What are all the books doing here?" The shy librarian asked the elder Magus. Konoemon brushed his elderly beard and pointed a finger upwards.

"Asuna-chan asked me to do this. She said that you've been having nightmares of an unusual sort. Yue-kun suspected precognition too. So I decided to take things into my own hands. I was hoping that you would participate in therapy sessions regarding the dreams you've had, so every one can get along better. What do you say?"

* * *

Nodoka and the dean were walking together later on Sakura Lane, the rumoured boulevard where a vampire roamed months ago. Actually it was Evangeline who is still roaming the Lane, but not so often as back then. School was over for now and the whole Ala Alba was to meet up later at Evangeline's cottage. Nodoka did have to go through with talking with the dean regarding these dreams though.

"I feel a little disappointed, Nodoka-kun. Although I'm pleased to know that these dreams could just be humbug, you could have just mentioned them earlier."

"Sorry, Dean. I just didn't want to look weird, even in front of Negi-sensei. The others would just see me a bit off." Nodoka replied to the dean. The old Magus nodded and stroked his beard again.

"Understandable answer, Nodoka-kun. But do come to me if more of these nightmares come back, okay?" He didn't receive an answer for a while. "Nodoka-kun?" He noticed that she had stopped and was shaking a little while looking upwards towards a tree in the lane. When he looked up the tree, he couldn't really what they were, but for Nodoka she was it was.

It was them.

**

* * *

A/N: Also, I hadn't really intended that much of crossovers. However, I was planning on bringing in races, planets and stuff like that for this story.**** Oops, I made a spoiler. Anyways, this was the end of the Disturbance arc. Hopefully, the next chapter will be longer. You're going to wait a while for it though. Merry Christmas in the meantime.**

1 This is actually my own interpretation of the Trinity. If the Christian God is as almighty as the Bible says, then He shouldn't bother at all with the Trinity at all. I'm not saying that I'm a Unitarian, but God can sometimes screw up the way He does things.

2 I forgot to mention Yuuna's artefact. It's basically a sword and shield type of artefact, meant to be defensive. The shield can absorb magic energy to replenish her own, allowing her to fight longer. The sword is just there to make sure she has a chance to fight back. More details on this later.


	3. First Encounter

**A/N: Do you know of George R.****R. Martin? Apparently he hates fanfiction. I wonder why. Anyways, one thing that he has made is showing up in this story. I do not own the whole thing; I just own the concept of it here. Anyone figure out what it is, in a review please.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Just goons

Teacher's office

Lessons were over and the teachers were having their usual conversation about what to do for the coming weekend. Shizuna-sensei was planning to go on vacation to the south, and other teachers were thinking the same. However, Nitta-sensei wasn't like that. He seemed to enjoy the life of watching the school and catching students sneaking around at night to do this and that. The magic teachers had their own spare time: improvement. Due to certain events, the magic teachers had banded together in order to train themselves in magic and combat, just so they wouldn't lose to Negi. 'Course, Takamichi was stronger than Negi but he was a war hero, not to mention master of the ultimate skill. Though he's been falling behind lately, so he had also joined the training time as a combat instructor.

Anyway, at the office, the magic teachers were for themselves right now with Shizuna as well and they were planning the training session.

"So, Negi-kun. Do you mind if you come show us a few things this weekend? That is, if Eva hasn't got hold of you again." Takamichi asked his young friend.

"Ah, sorry Takamichi. Master has me going over with large-scale battles again. Then there's the problem that Nodoka-san." Negi responded. There simply was no time for him to help out his fellow teachers with their own training. It doesn't really that he's been given the glare by some teachers when he is there.

"I see. Well, it better not be anything serious with her. We can't have things like that go on." Takamichi paused for a moment. "We'd all be prepared for the worst. We would like to avoid such a scenario. Or what do you say, guys?"

The other gave off a collective 'yeah' and 'OK' with some of them gave off simple 'humph' as well. Negi just had to realize the importance of Takamichi's little speech.

"You said that because you learned that you're a dead person in those dreams and you don't want to die?"

Takamichi turned to his friend. "No, you're wrong on that one, Negi-kun." He then proceeded to grab Negi's collar and pulled him close to his face. "I _really_ don't want to-"

Before he could finish his sentence, an explosion was seen from the window outside their office. When all the teachers went to see the cause, they saw a big fireball rising into the sky, followed by several small explosions.

"_Negi-sensei!"_ Nodoka's telepathic cry rang in Negi's head that he had to cover his ears to try and shut out the noise. Though that was just a worthless attempt. In an instant afterwards, he pulled out his pactio card with Nodoka and put to his head. "Nodoka-san. What's wrong?"

"_The dean and I…we've…met…them. They're here…" _was the voice of a panting and highly frightened Nodoka. Negi could barely make out what she's saying.

"Look, calm down. Where are you, and who are "they?"" Negi asked his mind reading partner.

"_Sakura Lane. And it's those from the __nightmares I've had." _That was the response of a Nodoka who had calmed down temporarily and gathered her wits. Meanwhile, the explosions continued outside.

"Got it." He then turned to everyone in the office. "Sakura Lane, everyone! The dean's in trouble!"

All the magic teachers rushed off as fast as possible out of the office and began making phone calls to people they knew. Negi pulled out his pactio cars he had with the other girls.¨

* * *

Over at Sakura Lane, the dean and Nodoka ran for it, only to be cut off by a wall of green fire. Whoever they were, they are good. Their magic was completely different than their own way, but it did not seem to be from any other direction they knew about. They also seemed swift on their feet, as two individuals in bright clothing made for function jumped out in front of the two.

And for being an old man, Konoemon knew how to be agile. As the two 'men' tried to grab them, he had taken hold of Nodoka and jumped clean over them. Then he proceeded to land on their backs and gave a great kick to them, making them stumble forward. Though he failed to notice that those two were not alone. Because he was hit in the back by a flying individual who had punched him.

Nodoka could barely do anything, it all happened so fast for her. Who were these men? What was their goal? But now that Konoemon and Nodoka had landed on their backs, they could se what they looked like.

They were tall of body and limb, with black coloured shoulder plates, that contrasts with the weak yellow breastplate with red trimmings. Brown gloves with dark spots did they wear along similar pants. They also wore dark brown sandals which revealed their skin. The skin in this case, wasn't fair or tanned or even African. It was roughly yellow instead, leaning towards orange. A green shirt was underneath the breastplate, because the armor didn't protect their stomachs. They also wore black helmets, so it was difficult to note the facial figures. They carried what seemed to be swords on their backs, while one carried some highly evolved bow in his left hand.

"Just so you know, you guys." Konoemon started after looking at them for a while. "That is some awful colour coordination."

This seemed to tick one of those who didn't hold a bow. He pulled out his sword and went for the old man. Konoemon disappeared in front of their eyes, leaving them and Nodoka puzzled.

"Mind if I borrow this?" Konoemon said behind the trio of the mysterious men, holding the sword of the other one with no bow, shocking the whole group. "Thank you." He quickly assumed a Kendo stance and launched several attacks against the striker. Mentioned striker was confused by the old man's swift and strong abilities of martial arts, taking in the notice that he was an old geezer, and barely managed to fend off the attacks.

The other two was a bit stunned still after that the old geezer had somehow appeared behind them, and their original target was right in front of them. The geezer wasn't important, but he was certainly in their way. Let's take a look into their communications chat:

"_This old man is good. I could use some help here!" _The one battling, more like fending off the old man.

"_You're doing well so far. He can't keep that up for too long." _The one with the bow noted to him. (A/N: FYI, they're talking telepathically to each other)

"_Hell no! I can barely keep up with him. He's too fast for my __vision (__1__)! And how did he show up behind us in the first place!?"_

"_You all remember that first battle when we first came to this place? That girl with the blades was wicked fast, and her magic user wasn't what we're used to either."_

"_You're not making sense!" _The guy next to the archer commented whilst looking at the old man.

"_I'm saying, that the magic user we first faced was a high level one for his age and this geezer, well, it's to be expected of such an old magic user. __I reckon he ought to a master here."_

"_**Team, get ready for company down there" **_Another voice called to all of them from somewhere. _**"Our scans on our side report several local fighters heading your way at full speed. From three directions."**_

"_What!? We're discovered already!? How did they know where we were?"_

"_I think that's the old geezer sent a fireball at random. He gave away our position. Oof! That was close!" _The one battling Konoemon with his sword pointed out.

"_Shit! HQ, how many and where are they?"_

"_**There are two individuals heading towards you through the trees on your right. There are also seven coming straight ahead of you. The main group, or should I say the largest concentration is coming from behind**__**. We can send down a heavy weapons mount to your position straight if you wish."**_

"_Appreciate the offer, but negative. Target's right in our hands. We'll grab her, and __we go to the transport ship and then we're out of here."_

"_I'll get the target. Kharaightar, you take care of the two men team through the woods. Khon, you're doing fine with Geezer there, see if you can keep it up. The rest of you hold the enemy off until target is secure, from there fall back to the ship." _The empty handed swordsman connected to his team. He received a collective _"Copy that"_ whilst reaching out for Nodoka.

Konoemon noted it and performed his own shundo towards the two and gripped the man's hand with his free hand. Before he knew it, the old man had thrown him over his head completely and on a collision course with Khon. "Can't have you do that to my student." Konoemon said, now in a Karate stance with the apparent team leader's sword at hand. Nodoka gathered her wits and pulled out her wand. She can't just back down from a fight like this.

"_Change of plans. Khon, you and I team up on them and take the geezer out and snatch the target."_

"_You got it, Rusafa."_ Khon responded and the two jumped on to their feet. The two charged at the old geezer.

* * *

"Who are these guys?" Asuna cried as she blocked another attack from these weird soldiers. At least, that's what they guessed because of the similar outfits they had. Asuna had gone with Haruna, Kaede, Ku Fei, Yue, Yuuna and Akira from the dormitories to help Nodoka over at Sakura Lane, only to be cut off by three of these goons, one of them having dark green robes with hood and all, but no staff. Yue reckoned that it was a mage they dealt with and two melee fighters.

"They're a lot weaker than I thought!" Haruna shouted over the chaos that was happening. Ku Fei and Kaede were having fun with the other one, while Asuna and Yuuna dealt with the one closest to them. Yue was having a magic duel with their mage, who was significantly better than her. Though Akira was her shield against the aggressive spells. Haruna was support to the whole battle, preparing something big for ending the fight fast.

"They know how to work as a team though… Must have been working together for years." Yue noted as she and Akira fended off a green fireball. "Haruna. When can you get your golem done?"

Haruna finished her initial sketches quickly. "It's done now. Back off everyone! It's a biggie!" And she was right. She had created a dragon…a very big dragon. It was big enough for the soldiers and the mage to stare at it for a while. And when the dragon gave off a roar, the soldiers had practically run away from the group. Now let's take a look into their telepathic communication between each other.

"_How the blazes did they get a dragon so fast!?" _The mage of the trio screamed to his two companions.

"_Idiot! It was that bitch at the back! She had a summoning device!"_

"_You're the magic user in this squad, and you can't tell the fucking difference between a conjurer and a mage!?"_

"_THEY'RE THE SAME THING, YOU TWO! WE'VE ONLY BEEN HERE A MONTH!"_

"_Let's just hope the others are doing better than us."_

* * *

That was way easier said than done. Because the ones fighting the teacher were being massacred by the sheer amount of magic energy that the teachers were giving out. Takamichi and Negi excelled against the soldiers and any attacks pulled off by the soldiers were stopped by Seruhiko, the specialist in defence. Negi in particular wasn't going easy against them. He made sure that he didn't kill any of the three, but he also made sure at the time that they wouldn't try to get up again. This was thwarted at the end, since they all got on to their feet before they landed.

Suddenly they just stopped in front of the teachers. Whilst the teachers prepared for another assault to counter, the soldiers turned their heads away from them at first, back to the place where Rusafa and Khon were fighting the old man, and then turned their heads back to the teachers. Without saying anything, they turned away and ran off somewhere.

"Huh? What was that about?" Akashi asked for the whole group. Bit later, they all saw something big in the sky. It was a great dragon influenced ship with no wings. A huge claw was at the front to indicate that it could slice into hardened metal with ease and still not take a dent. On the belly was a big plough or something like that, possibly to commence an attack from above.

"Come on. We've got to ensure that the dean is alright." Takamichi said. They eventually rushed to the dean, along with everybody else.

* * *

"Okay. Anyone like to start sharing their problems with everyone else?"

Aboard the transport, Rufasa, Khon, Kharaightar along with everyone else was aching all over their bodies after their fights with the locals. Rusafa was wrapping in his left arm in bandages, Khon was semiconscious and lying on the floor. Kharaightar the archer of the first three seemed most okay of them all, but he was hurt all over as well. The rest was wrapping in their limbs and heads in bandages and felt sore in various places.

"I met the two in the woods as you told me to, Rusafa, but those girls were sheer monsters." He described them with gestures as he told what happened. "One of them had her hair gathered on her left side of the head, and she wielded a very long cutting sword. I got the smell of a demon from her. The other one had her hair down. A gorgeous dark skinned girl she was, but completely scary with her firearms. And those eyes of her were just…I shiver at the thought."

"And they let you get away, I suppose?" the mage asked Kharaightar as he was dusting off some ash from his shoulder.

"They were just doing their job of protecting this place, I suppose. If I were to pull back, they wouldn't stop me. At least, they didn't in my case. And you?"

"We met seven of them. One magic user, five fighters and a conjurer. We did a fairly good job of holding them at bay, but then they summoned a dragon."

"Huh?"

"It was a big dragon, bigger than our transport. We had to run away from that. Apart from that, the opposition's age category, I should say, teenage."

"And you three? What did you meet?" Kharaightar asked the last of the three who hadn't said anything.

"We met full grown ups. And one kid."

"That's it?"

"No. But out of all those guys, it was the kid with red hair for that matter that was the worst."

"How so? Was the grown ups just pushovers?"

"No. They were equal or more to us in skill. But the kid's speed was just… Monstrous. We couldn't even see him until it was too late. We're lucky to be alive, all of us."

"That reminds me." Khon finally spoke up while lying on the ground still. "Rusafa, why did you call for a full retreat in the first place?"

Rusafa took a huge chill up his spine as he recalled what happened back there. Khon had been unconscious when it did happen.

"We were fighting that geezer, remember, Khon? You had been knocked by one of his punches, and I took the chance to bring him to the ground. Then the target somehow, had gathered enough strength to throw me away by some 7 metres, I think. But as I got up, my feet were ensnared by something. Small strings, I think it was. But what really freaked me out back there was that there was a third one there all along. Small looking girl, golden hair, blue eyes, looked like kindergarten to me."

"Some little brat scared the wi-"

"That _wasn't _some little brat I saw." Rusafa scolded his companions. "Listen, everyone. I've seen a lot, and I can what kind of trouble I'm dealing with when I look them in the eyes. At first, her eyes looked ordinary, but when she talked to me, and looked at me… it was like seeing a monster among monsters."

They looked at him in awe, as his own eyes, a pair of black beads as all of them had, showed clear signs of fear within. One of them had the nerve to ask what it was this 'monster' said to Rusafa.

"Oh, I remember clearly what she said to me: _"Usually I wouldn't bother with someone like you, but the one you're hunting is important to my apprentice, so you are a nuisance to me. What will you do? Go on and get killed while you're at it? Or just run home and tell your boss he's after the wrong prey?" _Those eyes of that girl were more than enough to scare the hell out of Rusafa back then. It was like she had read his mind, no, she _had_ read his mind back then. After that little chat, he called an immediate pull back to the transport.

So, what we're dealing with here is some kind of training place for magic users for the local area, and on top of that, these guys got a monster within property that has an apprentice?"

Kharaightar asked bluntly to his leader, whom seemed to merely nod in return.

"This is not a job for us anymore. Once we sent in our report, they're likely to send our superiors whose asses we've been kissing all this time." Upon this, the other guys groaned in response.

"You mean: whose asses _you've_ been kissing all this time." The mage in the group responded to that.

"Oh, come on! Why do we have to turn things over to the Sword Stalkers? We can take care of this thing ourselves." Another one, who had dealt with the grown ups.

"Yes, we can. If we bring in tanks and demons, not to mention orbit support along with a company of a legion instead of just us, then we would pull it off. But that wouldn't sit fine with High Command, now would it? Especially since we were told to keep public operations down to a minimum." Rusafa pointed out for his team-mates.

The one who spoke up just kept quiet from now.

"We'll leave it to the Sword Stalkers."

* * *

"Whatever may have happened in Nodoka-kun's nightmares, those responsible for it have shown themselves. And it's likely that they will try again." Konoemon instructed everyone on the scene. The teachers and students along with Evangeline were discussing who they were up against and how to take action against them next time.

"Takamichi-kun. You're in charge of patrol. I want twice as many men in patrol units day and night. Hire martial artists if you have to. Seruhiko-kun, I want special barriers all over the academy. Make sure nothing gets through it without us noticing. The rest of you, I want you to be on your toes. Keep watch on everything that doesn't look like students."

"Yes sir." The other teachers dispersed out throughout the school to install themselves as security. When the students and Negi began to walk back to the dorms, Konoemon stopped Nodoka for a short while.

"That was a nice throw you made back there, Nodoka-kun. I'm impressed."

"Ah, well… I couldn't just stand back while you were to be stabbed, principal-sensei. It sort of just came to me." A very shy librarian responded to the elderly master Magus, who merely nodded in return and gently walked away from the scene of battle. Nodoka received a weak pat on the back from Asuna who smiled at her friend and gave her thumbs up. Several others followed suite and congratulated her as well in their own way. Negi merely stood back along with Mana, Evangeline and Akira.

"Aren't you going to walk over to her too, boya?" Evangeline looked over to her disciple of the dark arts. He looked a bit happy at seeing such a scene in front.

"Eventually. But I'd rather talk to her a bit later. Right now, I think it's best to leave her to her classmates."

"Spoken like a teacher taking care of his students." Mana said before putting her guns in their places. "If you'll excuse me sensei, I need to talk to the dean regarding my fee for this job." She then quietly took her leave in the same direction.

Negi merely observed Nodoka having a happy conversation with the others. For now, the danger was over.

**

* * *

A/N: ****Maybe I went a little overboard by making the dean a master of Kendo and Karate along with several martial arts in Japan. I don't know. You got any problems with it; I will respect your opinion. By the way, I expect your knowledge of various things to be active for this story. What sorts of things is for you to discover. See you with the next chapter soon I hope.**

1 They are all generally psychic, so they can employ precognition to their fighting style. In other words, they are able to foresee what their enemies are going to do next. Konoemon was a wee too fast for his opponent so to speak so he couldn't really react properly.


	4. SS

**A/N: School's back for me! Yay! ****Life sucks sometimes. ****Anyway, the story continues. This will be the second chapter of the Kidnap arc. Expect violence in this one.**

Chapter 4: The SS

* * *

"Wheee!" Kaede squealed as she was thrown across the room of the lobby before landing safely on the wall on her own two feet. They were all discussing today's actions (1) and Makie, one of those absent from the battle had asked Nodoka about that throw she had pulled off against those goons. Kaede had volunteered for being the test subject. At first Nodoka had activated the contract for herself, and while Kaede had her left hand out, Nodoka had in a swirl pulled Kaede around herself and then let go when she was in mid-air, sending her flying.(2)

"That was a nice throw, Honya-dono. I was barely prepared for that one-de gozaru." The tall ninja girl complimented the shy librarian who was the centre of attention at the moment.

"Whew, no wonder grandpa got impressed. I want to learn that one too." Konoka said with stars in her eyes and excited very much.

"It just came to me, I said." Nodoka responded back to the main healer of the group. Nevertheless, she still received some applauds because of her resourcefulness, according to what they said.

"Let see you learn how to fight as well." Ku Fei said to the shy librarian who jumped at the Chinese girl coming up from behind. Likewise did Kaede as well when the notion came up about Nodoka learning some martial arts.

"Hmm, maybe Karate would do for Honya-dono, or maybe Kyokoshin-de gozaru?"

"Waah, don't make it worse than it is, please." Nodoka begged the stronger members of the White Wing. "It was a freak occurrence. I don't need to learn how to fight."

"I know! Kenpo, like Negi-bouzu! You get practice with people you know!" Ku Fei escalated again for her and began to take hold of Nodoka's arms and tried to move her limbs into position when they heard someone shouting.

"Oi! Negi-kun!" Misa came running down the stairs panting heavily holding her cell-phone. Negi, who had kept quiet from his spot, rose up and met up with her.

"Kakizaki-san. What's wrong?"

"It's Madoka. I'm worried about her. She hasn't come back yet, and she's not answering her cell-phone." Misa responded still panting heavily. Apparently she's been trying to call Madoka's cell just a moment earlier.

"Okay, I'll go out and look for her. Everyone, it's time to go to bed. We've all had a bit of a rough day." Negi began to run of the dormitories.

Misa then noticed Ku Fei holding Nodoka in a sturdy grip. "What are you two doing?"

* * *

As Negi left the dorms in search of Madoka, several figures on the roof saw him off without him noticing. One of them didn't have his helmet on, revealing a scarred face with his right eye having survived a severe diagonal cut. His head itself was formed in the shape of an arrow tip pointing downwards, which would be the best description. Behind were two other figures holding someone from the school. She looked angry and at the same, somewhat frightened.

"What's the big idea, you punks?!" Madoka semi-shouted at them. They couldn't speak her language, but since they were highly telepathic, they picked what she meant, and in response, one of them squeezed her left arm to cause her pain, but he received a scowl from his leader, so he stopped. The one with no helmet then turned to Madoka.

"The big idea here, miss" he responded telepathically to her but moved his mouth so it looked like he could Japanese. "is that we're not going to harm you if you tell us the whereabouts of someone named Nodoka Miyazaki."

Madoka didn't see his real face; instead she saw the face of a handsome muscular man with long curly black hair and a goatee. And how come her knees were getting jelly by just looking at him?

"Wait, Honya-chan? What do you want with her?" Madoka asked curiously.

"None of your concern." Was the answer she got from him.

"Well if you're not going to tell me, then I'm not telling you!" She responded with a pout and stared at him who returned with his own stare. In the end he relented.

"Do you want me to be honest, or tactful?"

"Tactful, please." Madoka said. Best be safe what it would be if he was lying.

"We're going to ask her nicely if she could come with us to try and analyze those nightmares she's been having lately and then we let her go." This handsome old gentleman told her at first, leaving her a bit bedazzled and confused. She didn't know anything about any nightmares at all.

"Okay. Let's be honest now, okay?" She asked nicely while trying to get her arms out of the sturdy grip she was held in, but to no avail.

"We're going to abduct her and bring her back to our place where you children cannot follow."

Okay, that was very blunt for an honest answer. Madoka could barely find a response to that first. She just stared at him in disbelief at first while he had the look of one who was serious.

"You're pulling my leg, right?"

The stare she received said otherwise…

"Well, whatsoever, I'm not going to betray a classmate, no matter who it is." Madoka finally managed to get it out of her mouth, despite that these guys had loaded guns, swords, not to mention some high-tech armor. Well she didn't bother with details just yet.

"Fine, then, miss. If you're to going to be that way…" He put his hands around her face, pulled her closer and let go of his illusion. "Then I'm going to have to hurt you." In all the time she's been a student in middle school, Madoka has never felt so scared before.

_**

* * *

Just a moment later…**_(**Listen to the song "Hall of the Mountain King while reading**)

* * *

A figure was crawling along the wall and the floor of the dorms while searching for something. This guy was in a black suit of metal armor. The black colour was latex, so that his body temperature would be dampened. Rather that it was connected to the armor, his helmet which formed around his head and covered his face was more separated from the breastplate, allowing him to turn his head when he wanted to. Also, he had a dark red belt with brown small pouches as a utility belt. There was no cape for him to wear. In the belt was a sheathed sword, which wasn't hanging freely, but strapped tightly.

And for a reason. According to what the sonar in his visor provided by the team on the roof said, there were a total of twelve guards in the building. And they were on a high alert. One patrolled alone at least, but he couldn't risk knocking him out. So he had to keep as quiet as possible.

As he stalked the railings, he saw two guards walking together around the corner. They were by observant's account martial fighters, not magic users. But he can't be too confident. The structure of the building is designed so that a shout could be heard throughout the building. If they manage to make a shout, he was doomed. So the best thing he could do at the moment was stay out of sight.

He carefully sneaked behind them with gentle steps and he quickly hid behind a pillar given the chance. That and he would hide from plain sight when he realized one of them was going to turn around to look. This is what happened just then. He quickly jumped out of sight before the one of the right would turn around.

"What is it?" The one on the left asked.

"I thought I heard something." His colleague responded looking rapidly for a change of the scene.

"I don't see a thing."

"Must have imagined it…" They continued their patrol. What was unknown to them was that the figure in armor had jumped to the roof and taken a good hold of the beams. His feet gently touched the ground and he continued his little sneaky routine. There were other times when the patrol he followed would run into another, and he would hide very well. But he wouldn't use the same spot all the time. He would swift between hiding places.

"Oi." Kotarou called out to the two martial artists from the Karate Club. They had been hired by Takahata to work as extra security along the dorms which they agreed to. Plus, it meant that they could pick up cute girls, but they weren't expecting patrolling at night. Though maybe they got lucky and find a girl in a negligee with which to escort to their room and then some.

"Yo, Kotarou-kun." The one on the left from Kotarou's point of view greeted him.

"Anything?" Kotarou asked the two.

"Nah, nothing. I'm beginning to wonder if it's just a false alarm." The other martial artist responded.

"Well, I don't know anything. I wasn't there when it first happened. But the dean said it's important, so…" Kotarou began to feel a loss for words there.

"Guess it can't be helped, then." One of the martial artists finished for him.

"Yeah, that's it. I'm going back to check 3-A's level. Keep your eyes peeled." Kotarou said before he caught something in the air. "You smell something?"

The two guys began to sniff in the air but they couldn't get anything. Kotarou merely shrugged his shoulders and went to the stairs. "The smell is driving me crazy."

As Kotarou went for the stairs, the figure followed him. Even when staying out of sight, one has to listen to what others say. He crawled this time along the wall as he followed the unsuspecting boy. Data didn't provide anything unusual about him. Just that he was a non magic user that liked to get up close.

Kotarou paused for a moment, and the figure freezed. Was the boy going to turn around and sound the alarm? Was he going to keep walking as if it was nothing?

Kotarou raised his head and the figure feared the worst…

"ACHOOO!" Kotarou sneezed before shaking his head and then hearing a "Gesundheit!" from one of the martial artists down below. "Thanks!" he shouts back and goes around the corner before being snatched by a grumpy Natsumi who takes him into their room despite his complaints.

The figure in metal had to fall down on that one, because he feared the worst there. Nevertheless, that girl had given him a chance to stalk around for the target freely. Now he could walk freely on this level until another guard came.

"Meow." That sound made him pause for a moment. It wasn't the sound of a guard, but it put him on alert for once. He turned around slowly and found…nothing. There was no one there. He shrugged his shoulders and checked the door signs for the name: Nodoka Miyazaki.

"Meow." Again was the noise. This time he turned around fast, to make sure that there really was someone there. And again, there was…nothing. No one was there. Scans indicated that no guards were on their way to his level. This time he just shook his head and proceeded to read the signs on the doors. He was sure to find the right door if there wasn't another-

"Meow." This time though, he drew his sword and swung it while turning around in a 180 degrees turn. But there was no one there.

"Meow." The noise came from below him. As he looked down, he found a small red fuzzy creature with white legs that looked at him with big eyes and said "Meow" again.

"Cat." Was his reply to seeing the little animal.

"_A cat saw you?" _Came the telepathic question of one of his team-mates on the roof.

"Yeah. It's just looking at me." He responded while the cat gave off another meow.

"_It's probably hungry. Give it something __to eat."_ Came the order. He opened one of the pouches and shoved half his right arm into it up to the elbow (3). He then produced a bag of Miaomix. As soon as the cat was eating, he quickly proceeded to find the right door. Finally, he found the door. On the sign it said: Yue Ayase, that's not who he wanted, Haruna Saotome, a good conjurer according to reports, and Nodoka Miyazaki, mind reader. That's the one.

"Meow." The cat had come back for more cat food. But before he could react to the cat, someone from within the door was coming, so he jumped up to the roof and grabbed the beams.

Haruna opened the door and looked for something that was outside when she saw the cat. The cat was looking at something.

"Hey there, little buddy. Did Sakurako leave you out of their room again?" Haruna said quietly since Yue and Nodoka was asleep. She stayed up late again because she was working on her manga for the school paper. This time, the cat gave a weak "meow" and nuzzled his little head against her leg. Haruna picked him up and began to walk in and closed the door. Unbeknownst to her, the figure had entered the room when she hadn't looked carefully.

"Would you like some late-night milk?" Haruna dropped the cat to the ground and he went to lay himself on Haruna's chair at the drawing desk. While the figure climbed along the walls and the ceiling, Haruna went to get milk from the fridge. The figure proceeded to check identities. The one who was awake was identified as Saotome, at least, the conjurer with the magic sketchpad, according to what Rusafa and his team had reported. Over by the beds were two figures as well. The one on top had to be Ayase, because they already had a picture of Miyazaki. And she was nowhere as good in magical abilities as Ayase. That meant that the one on the bottom bunk was Miyazaki.

"_Target located." _He called telepathically to the team on the roof.

"_Got it. We're calling in evac. Remember, we were told to get her with us no matter what. Use what you can to get her with you." _Was the response of his team-leader.

"_Roger that, Khan."_ The figure began to set his feet on the floor when Haruna came back with a small plate filled with milk. He quickly retreated with his feet. When she had set down the plate and the cat began to lick it, Haruna set her eyes on a device that wasn't there before. It seemed like that thingamajig that Yue had brought in with her earlier. There was a pair of glasses attached to it with a cable. Haruna felt a bit tempted to try them on.

"Maybe just a quick peek…" Haruna took off her glasses and put on the shades. At the same time she managed to turn the machine on. The noise wasn't loud enough to wake the others up, so it was a go.

What she saw was not like your average video games. She had gained a three dimensional image of the dormitories, beginning from her room. There were blue figures in every room, so that must be the others sleeping. Then she saw red figures on the roof, together with a blue figure. Zooming in, she began to see faces, and she focused in on the blue one, to find that it was Madoka, seeming as if she was in a heavy shock. The red figures were similar to the soldiers they had encountered earlier, only they were equipped more heavily. Without warning, sensor alerts went wild within her glasses. _What's going on!? Eh? Hold on… hostile in close proximity… but where? _Haruna's mind processed the whole information that went through the glasses. Then she felt someone poking her shoulder. Haruna took off her glasses and turned around to find one who had the same equipment like those on the roof.

"Sorry for this, but I can't risk failure." The next thing she knew was a sharp pain in her neck, then darkness. (**You can stop the music now.**)

* * *

A slam from the room next door woke up Asuna and Konoka. Before they could get out of bed, they heard a scream that became muffled. That didn't sound good.

"Come on!" Asuna yelled at Konoka, who grabbed her wand and Pactio card. Asuna called out her fan and bolted for the door. Once outside, she met the armoured opponent holding a very frightened Nodoka who was gagged under his right arm.

"Why you-" Asuna began to swing her fan at this guy, only to have it blocked by his left arm. Then she got kicked hard in the abdomen and dropped to the ground. Konoka pointed her wand and began a chant, but it was cut off when he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her to the railing and squeezed tightly.

"Stay out of our way." Were his words to her. Then he stopped squeezing, allowing Konoka to breathe.

"Ojou-sama!" Setsuna came running, sporting her blade Yuunagi at this armoured opponent. He tossed Konoka at her gently, not enough to make her fly, but enough to make Setsuna shift her primary to Konoka instead of Nodoka. He took the opportunity to jump from the railing to the level above.

"You sure are slow." Kaede's voice startled the intruder. "I've been waiting for you here for a while." She emerged from the wall next to him thanks to her invisibility cloak, sporting her Kunoichi outfit and a pair of small kunai. She had chosen carefully which weapon, and her giant shuriken was way too big for the hallway.

Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything, because something attacked her mind with a powerful headache and stomach-ache at the same time. Those are nasty. And as she dropped her knees to the ground, she received a kick from him at the chin, to secure that she wasn't going anywhere. Then that boy identified as Kotarou jumped up to her side and the look on his face was enraging. Without words, he charged at the armoured fiend. Not a good idea.

Kotarou got punched back hard by the enemy's knuckles alone working as a whip, sending Kotarou back flying. But the young demon wouldn't give up easily, so he jumped back against the wall and charged again at him. Only to find that he had opened a door next to him and walked through it with Nodoka and closed it. When Kotarou opened the door, there was no one there.

"Damnit!"

Up on the roof, Rev'keth had returned to the rest of the team on the roof, with the target secured. She really was struggling hard to get out of his grip, as he walked to the others catching his breath. His helmet went up to reveal his face.

"Nice going, Rev'keth. Avoiding detection until last possible moment, taking down your opponents in swift knock out attacks and making a neat escape… You really do live up to your name as 'the Hunter.' I'm impressed." The one recognized by his voice as Khan praised his team-mate in their own, inhuman language. They had shut out telepathic communication for now, so they were safe from any possible jamming or eavesdropping.

"It was nothing. I still had to avoid that their heavier fighters. I faced two of them. Had to distract the first one, though the second one… was that you guys?" Rev'keth asked 'politely.' He didn't like it when others interfered with what he did.

"Ah, that's right. We knew that the tall fighter would cause you trouble, so we did lend a hand. 'Bring the target in by any means necessary,' was our orders. Even if you got pride, you can't do these sorts of things alone. Got it?" Khan told his comrade.

Rev'keth merely shrugged his shoulders. "Guess you're right. How long until evac is here?"

"Approximately two minutes and-"

"We don't have that long on us. The whole building is on to us. The conjurer managed to spot us using some kind of visual sensor array. Within seconds, everybody who can fight is going to be right on top of us." Rev'keth interrupted Khan. It didn't take long before the others picked up hostile auras from beneath them telepathically. It was up to nearly thirty people, some were worse than the rest, even outnumbering their own team of nine. Khan's expression changed from being a carefree individual to that of a battle master.

"I want those two sonar cannons at the ready ASAP! Rev'keth, you protect the target until evac is here! Centre yourself at the rear. Suk'han! You stay up at the front! I need you to ward off any charges they try to pull! And Oro'Kai! You stay with Rev'keth! We need your high level spells this time! Get a move on everyone!"

Everyone took their place respectively. Rev'keth and Oro'Kai the magician took their places to the rear with Nodoka who just noticed that Madoka was with her too. Two guys with each large cannon positioned themselves at the flanks, while Suk'han, a female in the team equipped herself with two swords and positioned herself in the centre. Khan took his place behind her with the other three who were armed with yellow long barrelled rifles (4). They checked the safety rig on them.

"Heh. Our grey skinned servants know how to make guns alright." One of them complimented his firearm.

"Why do you think we were assigned these from the start?" Khan said in his way to tell his comrade to shut up.

Ku Fei kicked open the door to the roof. "We through!" She then saw the welcome committee of elite troops. Quickly ducking for cover: "We expected!"

The suppressive fire of the rifles was immense for being small arms. The walls were able to withstand the shots, but if someone got hit, they'd be dead. That's why no one would rush out so fast into the lion's mouth. Ku Fei and Yuuna were at the door with a few of the martial artist guards with them, taking cover from the heavy barrage.

"We can't get through up here! We need heavy support!" Yuuna shouted down the stairs. In response she heard Mana shout back at her. "Use this!"

Everyone passed along a heavy package in red linen up to Yuuna. When it got to her, she let loose the ties on it to reveal a modified MG42, smaller in design, but carrying a larger magazine.

"I only use it in emergencies. You should be able to wield it with little problem. Just watch the recoil." Mana instructed the mage holding the big gun. The latter couldn't help but smile widely.

Eventually the firing stopped. There were three voices probably laughing and speaking in their own language which didn't sound like something that originated from any known country.

For them it sounded like: "Oumea jakia raijarikalia Hidikaoche karapukaul!" and the rest just laughed with what he said. At that moment, Yuuna came out of hiding holding the machinegun and Ku Fei went to hold it down, and the barrel was pointed at the elite troops. If their helmets weren't on, they'd look pretty much shocked to see such a weapon.

"Our turn." Yuuna said, and pulled the trigger. This barrage was definitely louder than the previous, and the soldiers had to activate shields for this one. Ku Fei was having little problem holding down the barrel while the recoil pulled the gun upwards, for hadn't it been for the Chinese fighter, Yuuna would have difficulty handling the gun. The latter just couldn't stop smiling, she just loved this gun. She wanted one of her own to use. Preferably one able to fire away magic arrows.

But the fun had to stop somewhere. The machinegun stopped firing and the two girls holding it got a bit surprised. And like a child wanting more, Yuuna pulled the trigger several times before realizing that the magazine was empty. "Waah, it is empty." She cried a little to herself.

"Tch…that was a bit dangerous of you" one of them called out to the duo holding the firearm. It turned out to be Khan, the apparent team leader. "What would you have done if you hit your friends?" to show them, he walked aside to reveal Nodoka and Madoka. "Really, that's just careless." He finished. The kanji for 'Careless' landed heavily on Yuuna and Ku Fei's heads. Behind came a slightly recovered Konoka and saw the scene before her. She was quick to speak up to these intruders.

"Why are you guys trying to take Nodoka!? It doesn't make sense!"

Khan observed her for a second and decided to answer her. Anything to stall their advance until evacuation was here. "We are only doing our job, little girl. You people have nothing to do with it."

"Last one to say that almost killed us!" Ku Fei shouted at the heavily armoured opponent that seemed willing to talk for some reason.

"That was him then, I suppose. But we're going to hurt you if you're going to interrupt us. So I say this nicely and once: Back off."

Several martial artists along with most of the White Wing came out of the door to the roof along with Ayaka (she's semi-involved with magic) and took their respective stances along with weapons. Yuuna responded for the whole group. "I'm afraid we cannot do that. Not as long as you threaten our friends."

"Harki mauker." Khan said to the team and the two cannons at the flanks fired off. It was powerful sound waves that shocked the party. The noise didn't cause any ruptures to the structure, but it stunned those affected and hurt their heads as well. Most began to fall down, though Yuuna, being a stubborn girl, tried to reach the opponents before collapsing.

"Johiro." The sounds stopped, but the noise was ringing clear in the guards' ears. Khan seemed to approach Yuuna and picked her up by the throat until their eyes met. His helmet came undone before her eyes, and she saw what he really. Not to bother with details, but when somebody's got a mouth full of sharpened fangs, it's never a good thing.

"Nice try there, little girl." He admired her.

As if by a signal, a large, yellow transport ship with no wings and jet propulsion came downward from the sky toward the rooftop. It stopped above them, and opened up its main hatch.

"That's our cue. We are leaving with her now. Don't try to-" Khan was cut short by a short figure jumping up and unleashing a barrage of magic missiles on them. Before any of them could react, this small figure had knocked down half his team and speeded towards him with a fury in his eyes. It took all the willpower he had in him to jump a long distance away from Yuuna and still maintain a calmed mind. In front of him was a young boy, couldn't be older than ten or eleven years old. Red hair did he sport, much like their own kind and he was in a dark outfit and carried a staff wrapped in linen bandages. The look he had on his face was not a pleasant one.

"You will not take my student!" He shouted at Khan, but he was cut short by another voice before he could move against Khan.

"Hey!" Rev'keth shouted at Negi, holding a very much frightened Madoka over the edge of the rooftop. "If you don't let us get on our ride at least, then she falls down to the ground, and there aren't any airbags for her!" He called to Negi's sense of duty to protect his students. Madoka was looking at Negi with tears filling her eyes and shaking at a high rate. Negi couldn't help but stand by, as the hastily recovering team of soldiers began to leap impossible distances up to their evacuation ship. Khan kept his eyes on Negi as he walked to the edge and Negi did likewise. Then Khan leaped up to the ship. Oro'Kai the magician was holding Nodoka, now asleep, and still gagged.

"Okay, I did my part of the bargain. Now let her go." Negi asked Rev'keth with an angry stare. Rev'keth regarded the little boy with his mind: a swift body, he should be able to catch her, but not him.

"Alright. But just so you know…that was a very poor choice of words." Then he dropped Madoka over the edge and began to run for the edge. As he and Oro'Kai leaped with Nodoka up to the ship, Negi darted as fast as he could to catch Madoka. There was no choice here, he had to save her.

Madoka fell down to the ground at full speed, bracing herself for impact and closing her eyes, hoping that it wouldn't hurt at all. Or at least, it would be over quickly. Only, she didn't hit the ground. Instead, she slowed down until eventually she stopped. She came to see Negi holding her in his arms and somehow…flying!? On his staff that he always carried around on his back. They had stopped just above the ground.

"Madoka-san…you're not hurt, are you?" Negi asked her gently. Madoka couldn't find the words. She just hugged him tightly and cried openly. They slowly ascended back to the roof where the others had just recovered. Konoka went to hold Madoka as she let go of Negi. Yuuna gave a report to Negi.

"By the time we found out they were here, they had already taken Honya-chan. Asuna got hurt in her stomach and Kaede-san is suffering from some unknown ache. We couldn't do much against them. Sorry for it, Negi-kun."

"It's alright for you." Negi responded to her. "Right now, we need Madoka-san to calm down and I'm going to need a party of us still capable to fight. I'm going after them. They're going to pay for taking Nodoka-san."

Konoka tended to Madoka's minor scratches with her magic, not that it much cared to her right now. Madoka had seen a lot tonight, perhaps too much for her to understand at once. She was having hiccups and tears were still running free. She couldn't speak right now.

"Iinchou-san." Negi called to Ayaka, shaking off a headache. "I need you to talk to Madoka-san as soon as she's calmed down. She deserves to know what happened to her. Just make sure she doesn't tell anybody else."

"Understood, Negi-sensei." Ayaka responded to her beloved teacher.

Haruna, Setsuna and Yue had volunteered to help Negi in pursuing them. Asuna was waiting on standby for a summoning by the pactio card. It didn't take long before Mei and Takane answered as well to the call. They had been away for the time of the short battle, so they weren't suffering from any aches. Negi sat himself on his staff and took off.

"LET'S GO!" He shouted as the White Wings lifted off from the roof top, ignoring the stares of the martial artists looking on.

_Hang in there, Nodoka-san…_

**

* * *

A/N: ****Finally done! I swear, I have never written so many pages before in my life on a single chapter. I was going to make a battle between the White Wing and the SS, but circumstances made it a bit difficult. So the battle could be in a separate minor chapter, if you like it.**

**You're going to have to wait for the next chapter as well. I'm falling behind on my school project, so I need to catch up with that as well. Meet one of the Big Bads in the next chapter: A Student Of What?**

1** This is usually how humans behave. After a hard day's work or battle, people will sometimes gather together and brag of their efforts of the day, and sometimes appoint a winner of who's done the hardest work.**

2 **This is somehow justified by the magic. In a normal person's case, that would only throw them off balance and disarm them due to the speed of the move. When the contract for a Minister is activated, his/her strength is increased immensely, resulting that the target will get lifted into the air. When let go, they are hurled to a distance depending on their weight. Rusafa in the last chapter weighed with equipment 150 pounds for that matter. Kaede I estimate weigh only 110 pounds, so she would have slammed hard into the wall were it not for her ninja skills.**

3 **What, never heard of a Utility Belt of Plenty before?**

4 **If you can't guess who made these, check up with table board games.**


	5. Fashtar's Appearance

**A/N: Okay, I've come around to write this at least. Hopefully, something won't be pulling my leg literally when I try to sleep every night. Here, at least will you see at least one of the Big Bads (****1****) in the chapter.**

Chapter 5: A student of what?

That night, over at Evangeline's cabin, a cloaked figure walked to the terrace. It was a short figure this one, and he didn't seem to bother the rain that had just occurred. He had a majestic grey mage cloak on him, with golden strings that held the hood together. And he was alone. When he knocked gently at the door, Chachamaru opened in response. She was dressed in her maid outfit.

"Is the Doll Master awake? I have the need to talk to her." He asked the gynoid politely. She recognized the voice from before and definitely those eyes of his.

"_**Welcome in. You took long." **_A voice told him inside his head. Chachamaru stepped aside gently and let the mage in. He didn't bother to take off his cloak. Evangeline stood on the staircase, dressed fully in her dark outfit and holding a smirk to send chills down anybody's spine. But then, this wasn't any ordinary mage.

"You have guts coming here on your own." Evangeline started as she walked down the stairs and he made his way to the couch to sit. "I could have Chachamaru slice you right now." As in response, Chachamaru turned her right arm in a sword and began to close the distance between herself and the intruder.

"I have no hostile intentions this time, Dark Evangel." He said in response to the robot closing the distance, causing her to stop. He looked at Evangeline with his own eyes, not taking the hood. "I only wish to talk."

Evangeline raised an eyebrow at this request, but she eventually accepted it. "Chachamaru, go and prepare some tea for me and our…guest." She put an evil smirk on that last word. Chachamaru merely bowed to her mistress' order and went to the kitchen. "So, what do you want to talk about?" Evangeline asked the hooded magus.

"It is about those figures you encountered earlier today. I have information about them." He responded to her.

"I'm sure boya could use that tomorrow." Evangeline snorted, as if this was her problem.

"Well, your 'boya' is flying off after them. They got what they came after." He responded to her, surprising her, and they could hear something break from the kitchen.

"What was that, Chachamaru?" Evangeline called to her android.

"Just a cup, Mistress." The gynoid responded back to the duo in the living room.

"Whatever, since boya isn't here and flying off to rescue Miyazaki, then I suppose I could listen to your information."

"Well, then…" the magus in cloak began...

…………………………………………

_**Turning away from those two...**_

…………………………………………

Negi and his small band of fliers were in hot pursuit of the jet powered flight that Nodoka was held hostage in. The ship was fast, but not enough to outrun them easily. When they had gotten to the cloud level, they had temporarily lost it, but Setsuna's own demon eyes were having no difficulty in spotting it in the clouds. But as the air got thinner, the weariness of the party was beginning to show. Mei had trouble catching up, so she had to rely on Takane to keep her tied with a shadow whip so that Mei could come with them. Haruna was having a blurry vision with the chill coming down upon them. They really need to set their training on environmental survival soon. Negi didn't even flinch or shake for that matter. He had endured it longer than anybody else. For him, this was child's play.

Finally they saw something bigger. The small ship was heading a much bigger one, approximately four times its size in volume and length. It was at least twice the size of a jet plane. It was yellow in colour primarily with white and black as supporting colours. In shape, it resembled, well, a big fish. Short wings that were broad and sturdy seemed to allow it the ability to turn swiftly and still maintain high speed. Like the small transport, it was powered by jet engines, which gave off a powerful blue glow.

"Is that where they're bringing Nodoka?" Yue said in awe of the size of the ship, as the transport docked with it through a hatch. From there, it took off and went to a hangar in which it flew. The party had stopped a fair distance away.

"Do you think they spotted us?" Mei shouted over the roar of the engine. She received a 'You don't have to shout.' from Takane, riding on top of a great shadow bird. The ship seemed to fire off a blue laser from the bow; at least they thought it was the bow. But the shot was wide as a house and just as accurate as a drunken chicken that's lost its head. It missed them by half a mile, and impacted safely in a lake.

"Yeah, I think they've spotted us." Setsuna responded to Mei. "What now?" she then asked.

"We wait." Negi said. And they waited for a second shot. Nothing happened then. It was as if they simply ignored them.

"Maybe they think us to have been hit by that shot." Haruna said curiously from behind Yue on the broom.

"Or they expect us to fire back." Setsuna retorted. Negi decided to go for the latter.

"_Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes, Cum__ Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina..._"

_**Aboard the ship, in the control room…**_

"Kor'el! We're getting a magic energy spike in close distance to us!" A scanner reported to his superior. The superior went to see the scans himself.

"What in the-"

_**By the party…**_

"_Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!" _Negi shouted as he unleashed his powerful spell. The thunderbolt was huge, nearly equal to the ship's laser in size, but packing a bigger punch probably. It was also a whole lot more accurate, slamming into the side of the ship, causing it to shake furiously and nearly fall down to ground, but it managed to stay in the air, after much turb usage from the engines. The girls watched in awe as the ship had been hit. Setsuna then noticed something on the ship's side.

"Look! A hole! We can get in there!" She took off taking the lead for the rest to follow promptly. As soon as she landed, Setsuna scared several crewmembers, though these were different from those they faced earlier. They were tall as well, at least taller than her, but blue or weak grey as skin colour. They were also clad in yellow like the ship, similar to jumpsuits. Their feet were also much different. They were hoofed. Hands were similarly different, having three fingers and a thumb. They weren't strong of limb or body however, so they ran away from Setsuna and the others when they landed. (2)

This sense of fear among the crew was short-lived, as rumbles of footsteps, both small and large in numbers and individual size came rushing towards their own positions. They drew weapons and Negi summoned Asuna from the ground.

………………………………_**..**_

_**Let's take a look at Evangeline…**_

………………………………_**.**_

"Coalition of species?" Evangeline asked curiously and surprised at this.

"Yes." The magus, still donning his cloak, responded. "A collection of seemingly humanoid species, gathered together to form some sort of empire. They draw the best from each race; Brutality of one, technology of another and the magic of others, and so forth. As far as I can tell, they have a combination of science and magic, with magic being the primary usage among most of the races."

"So a group of alien species decided to visit us and do the old snatch and run tactic on us as the novels and movies say." Evangeline said seemingly bored at this knowledge. "What else have you learned of them?"

"By observing them, I noticed that they are controlled by one race of humanoids that are more aggressive than the others. They are primarily magic users like us, but they hold a powerful sway over the other species." The magus answered.

"I take it they are tall, gaunt of limb and are roughly yellow in skin colour?"

"Correct. They are the main force of this alliance, so the others are probably just auxiliaries."

Evangeline had to give a laugh as the tea was being served by Chachamaru, who took a seat because she had nothing else to do during this time. "Those guys were nothing to us. We drove them back."

"There's something else too." The magus said, leaning closer to Evangeline, who did likewise in response.

"They're masters of something else than magic."

…………………………_**..**_

_**Intrusion party in trouble…**_

…………………………_**..**_

The defenders of the ship had a tougher fight on their hands than what they had anticipated. Negi and co were excelling at repelling their attacks. Whatever was thrown at them, it was just thrown back. Setsuna's speed was blinding as a best description, ending up behind the enemy without them noticing, Yue and Mei bombarding them with barrages of saggita shots and Asuna just beating the big ones back with her kicks, punches and her sword.

This next wave was different. What came out first was what seemed like a giant made out of iron. Well, it was titanium in fact. It had massive arms, with dark green skin underneath that metal armour. Green light emanated from the eye sockets of the helmet. There was a minigun, apparently on the right, with a large axe on the left arm. As soon as it laid its eye on the invading party, it gave off a roar and charged at Yue, swinging its massive axe as it ran towards her, only to be slammed away by a shadow punch.

"Takane-san!" Yue said as she observed the shadow mistress, having summoned her powerful battle minion. Her outfit was different too, seeming as if it melded and matched with the shadow clone and there were no buttons on this one. There was also nothing that bared a single bit of her skin. A second skin of shadows, so to speak.

The giant iron monger took a moment to observe the equally large giant in front of himself, before giving off what sounded like laughter. Then he charged at her, preparing its fists instead of the axe which detached itself along with the minigun and launched an attack similar to a haymaker against the giant shadow, not Takane. It turned to become a boxing battle on a large scale. And it was in Takane's favour. As long as she wasn't being hit, then victory would surely be hers.

But then, another group of soldiers appeared. These seemed different however. They weren't armoured in any way, and they sported the bare-chested variety. They did have clothing though, belts made of light green silk, with the abdomen in dark red silk. There was also a piece of clothing that covered the centre of their lower bodies, to protect their parts most private. They had knee caps made of steel, with similar arm guards. Their hair ran freely and they wore no gloves or boots. Their skin was that of those driven back earlier that day.

"What the hell?! Are they crazy or something, coming like that?" Asuna shouted as she saw them at them, then she began to run at them.

"No wait!" Setsuna held Asuna back with her left hand. "I know challengers when I see them. These fighters… they are martial artists from their own world." They merely observed as the fighters that had stopped took several stances, poised to strike within seconds. One with a red scarf around his neck made eye contact with Setsuna, and they were locked in what seemed like a stare contest. In truth, they regarded each other as martial arts fighters above all else. Setsuna saw the opponent as a dangerous hand-to-hand fighter with sharp powerful kicks, and he saw her as a lethal wielder of swords. Neither of them was going to get lightly wounded.

"Negi-sensei." Setsuna instructed her teacher as she took a Kendo stance with Yuunagi. "We'll hold them here. You go after Nodoka-san."

"We don't even know where she is. How am I supposed to find-" Negi noticed one of the martial artists had stepped aside from his original position and went to open a door that led to a staircase. Negi then received a telepathic message from them. _"You'll find what you're looking for up the staircase."_

Negi nodded to them and went up the stairs, not saying a word to the others. As the door closed, Haruna decided to call out a little thing she had drawn together a while ago.

"Guess it can't be helped. I'll help out here too." She called out her latest golem, made perfectly with precision and resembled an old foe they had bested.

"You drew Fate!?" Asuna questioned the manga-ka who had seemingly drawn Fate Averruncus. The golem had his right hand in his pocket; it looked like him on the spot.

"Well, he can't use spells and he's mute, but he knows martial arts much like what Negi-kun uses." Haruna said proudly with Fate standing by her side, allowing her to pet him. "Okay, boy! Do a good job!" Fate then took its position in front of Haruna and next to Setsuna. The latter felt a bit uneasy that she was going to fight alongside an old foe. But still, beggars can't be choosers.

"Let's go!"

……………………………

_**Over to Evangeline and her guest…**_

……………………………

"So what if these guys are high psychics? We seemed perfectly able to beat them without any problems." Evangeline responded to the ridiculous statement of the magus visiting her house in the middle of the night, in the rain and telling her about aliens. And during this, the magus in his hood had not once taken of his hood for them to see, but they did know instinctively who it was.

"Then you must've encountered some weak ones, because those I and my group met were anything but weak." The magus in question responded to her. "They seemed perfectly able to counter our every attack, including spells."

"Well then either they were a lot better than what we met, or your group was just piss-poor fighters who have never seen real combat. Personally I would think it's the latter."

"I would choose the former in this case, Evangeline-san. It wouldn't surprise me if you also could get defeated by them." The magus retorted back at the vampire, knowing well that he had triggered a button.

"What was that, you little…" Evangeline started, but seeing as the mage didn't even flinch at her expression, it eventually cooled off. "Ahem. You were over exaggerating there, good guest."

"Yes, I realized that myself before your explosion. Apologies."

"No need. There anything special about these… humanoids?" She continued her chat with him. Chachamaru just kept quiet, looking sternly at their uninvited guest.

"Except from what I've already told you? Yes, there is one more thing."

…………………………………_**..**_

_**Over to Negi…(the first line is what the magus tell Evangeline)**_

………………………………_**.**_

"_There is among them one who is different. He appears ineffective and clumsy, but he is far from what he looks. He commands the others with ease, is swifter than anyone else, and holds an inner strength more powerful than the rest."_

Negi flew on his staff into a very long corridor, approximately 150 in length. He was on one end, on the other end, was the door according to the map that soldier showed him. You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff one spits out when under threat from having ones skin scarred permanently by dark magic. The look on his face was very frightened at least.

On the other end, the door opened up like a Japanese slide door, and a tall individual stepped out. Apart from his comrades who had a orange leaning yellow skin, his was pale yellow. He had dark red hair tied in knots and decorated with beads of various bright colours. His clothing was abstract in design, not colour. It bared his chest and covered his arm like a suit. He didn't wear any pants, but his upper clothing covered that part up, and you'd have to be an idiot if you didn't wear anything that covered your private parts. His face was much similar to his comrades, where a nose would be on a human, on him there was no nose, but a pair of nostrils in a flat face if you looked at him sideways. Where his left eye should be, there was an eye patch made out of small silver scales and embedded with three brightly coloured gems to form a triangle, a ruby on top, an emerald on the right side and a sapphire on the left. On his left side of the waist, there was a sheathed sword decorated with rubies. He had a grin on his face as if he had expected Negi.

Negi couldn't help but feel nauseous at the sight of him, so he began to fly against him in medium speed, enough to knock a grown person over.

Over at the person's end…

"Come on, come on." He taunted silently the boy that came against him.

"I know you want to do it, I know you want to do it, come on and hit me." He kept taunting the boy, who came at him faster.

"Come on. I want you to do it, I want you to do it, come on and hit me."

_Negi flew closer and faster, baring his teeth…_

"Come on, hit me!" He began to shout at the boy, who accelerated faster.

"Hit me!" He shouted at the top of his lungs at the boy.

_Negi was now flying at his top speed against the figure, not flinching…_

His face quickly went from being the boldest person on the ship, to a more reasonable one. "Oops." He said.

Negi only flew on, and just before he hit, the person who had taunted him in his mind, dodged at the last second, and at the same time, managed to get hold of Negi's staff with both his hands and held on to it, as it came to an instant stop, turning around fast, making Negi fly off and land hard on the floor against a wall. The person now holding began to laugh at this incident. He just couldn't stop.

"You know, I really thought that you were to avoid me at the last second, but then I saw the look on your face…I got really scared there." He commented the little mage trying to get up on his feet with an angry face.

"Where is Nodoka-san?!" Negi shouted at the humanoid, pointing a finger at him. He merely pointed above him and responded "Right behind you."

When Negi turned around, he saw a vast tank filled with people from various places of the world floating seemingly, all unconscious. In this tank, was Nodoka, floating as well and unconscious. Negi felt his blood boil. He turned slowly to the humanoid.

"Oh, don't worry; we're not going to harm her. Just merely-" He couldn't finish his speech because Negi had punched him right in the face, making him fly backwards against a wall. The humanoid merely rose up and flexed his neck, causing a few cracks. "Why so serious?" He said in a stern tone, and Negi realized he had perhaps bitten off more than he could chew.

…………………………_**..**_

_**Eva-chan again…*sigh*… (Eva: WHO YOU CALLING EVA-CHAN!?)**_

…………………………_**.**_

"And you don't know who this guy is?" Evangeline asked the magus, who had finally taken off his hood for her to see who it really was, but she knew from the start. She could his scarred face.

"No. All I know is that he has some sort of a plan for our world. And I intend to stop him." He responded to her. She could see it in his eyes that he was determined for this.

"If you're so determined, then why come here in the first place?" She asked him clearly because of one reason; she didn't know.

"Why don't you guess it?" he retorted back.

It took a moment for Evangeline to find out. Why else would this mage come to her in the first place? "Boya." She answered with a smirk on her face. The mage merely nodded, not showing a smile on his face, because the scars wouldn't allow him.

"That's right. I'm in need of your disciple in this. He can beat this alien. He just needs the proper training."

Evangeline merely nodded to him, understanding that he was right. "Alright then, we have a deal." She put her hand forward for a handshake, which he accepted. Chachamaru didn't feel easy about this. Of all the Magi in the world, both Earth and Mundus Magicus, why this mage?

………………………………_**.**_

_**Final section, yay!**_

………………………………

Negi slammed into the wall hard and wasn't lucky on making a landing on the floor. His opponent breathing heavily hadn't drawn his sword, so he had resorted to fists and kicks. But he had to admit that Negi was a very tough fighter for being just a brat.

"Whew, that was some fight you put up there. And now while you're down, I can perhaps finish with any luck, if you let me." He took a moment to take a deep breath before continuing.

"As I said, we're not going to harm her in any way." He began as he took a seat on a control panel close to the tank, avoiding any important buttons. "We are just going to do a few check ups on her, like the rest of them in there with her. The usual stuff, checking physical health, mental stability, capabilities of the body and mind, stuff like that."

Negi half-listened to what he said, because he was preparing a spell to use. _"Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister…"_

"And once we are done with all those kinds of things, we'll return her back here." The humanoid continued, not hearing what Negi was preparing.

"_To Sumbolaion Diakoneto Moi, Basilik Ouranionion…"_

"You know, I admit, you were a lot faster than the previous mage I fought when we first came here." The humanoid stated admiring Negi's staff that he had taken and used against the boy mage. "But he had more power, not to mention that agile and ridiculously fast sword wielder that was with him. Well, you are alone, and that explains a few things."

"_Epigenetheto Aithaloeis Keraune hos Timeis Pth__eirei…"_

"That's pretty much how I came to find little Nodoka here in Japan. It wasn't quite hard, you see…"

"_Iactum Extendentem Circulum Praesentum Captem Objecta a Primum ad Decimum…"_

"What are you doing?" The humanoid finally noticed what Negi was doing, and to his ears, it sounded like a spell.

"_Area Constet" _Rumbles was heard all around the ship, making everything shake inside the ship. _"Intus se Premant Spiritus ad Pressuram Criticalem, Tribus…Doubus…Modo!"_

More rumbles came, throwing nearly everybody inside the ship, while the person right in front of Negi didn't budge from the shaking. "Whatever you are trying, it's insane. You're going to blow us all sky-high with this spell if it's just to get to me. And you'll kill them as well." He pointed to the tank holding Nodoka and the other humans inside it. Negi spared a glance at them.

"I'm not intending to destroy the ship. _Capturam Disjungens Omnes Spiritus Fulguranoles Fortissime Emittam! Hekatontakis Kai Killiakis Astrapsato!"_

"From my point of view, you are going to kill us all, boy! You're willing to do that for a little girl!?" The humanoid shouted over the rumbles of the ship.

"_Khilipl Astrape! Stagnet!" _At this, lightning bolts outside the ship shot towards the breach hole and searched their way to Negi through the ship. They went past the group fighting, making them all jump away from each other to avoid being hit, though it went past Asuna who didn't flinch at the sight. A bolt destroyed the door that lead to the stairs Negi went up earlier for the other bolts to go through. They were because the door they were looking to open next was already open and they went through it. They found their way to Negi who gathered them all in his hand for the humanoid in fancy clothing and the eye patch to see.

"_Complexio!" _Negi clasped the swirling lightning orb and it fused with him. Lightning bolts flew rampant around his body, he was glowing bright white and his eyes were blank. His opponent had the face of someone very frightened and shocked at this. He could only give off a minor chuckle. "Funny, my horoscope failed to mention this."

Back at the others, they were panting heavily from the lightning bolts that had passed through their position. The alarm that had sounded throughout the ship the whole time had shut down, and silence reigned. Takane had beaten her giant opponent seconds before the bolts came and had thrown herself to the ground. Setsuna had cut off somebody's hand and eh had fainted due to blood loss, making his companions drag him away to the infirmary. But none had prepared for the bolts to come through.

"What was that?" Haruna asked bluntly. She could recognize a lightning bolt when she saw, but not its behaviour.

"Well, you see," Asuna began. "I think it could-" She didn't finish because of the wall a few feet away were blown apart by something that made a big crater in the floor. They had all taken cover from the explosion. And when the smoke cleared, they found a humanoid in neat dusty clothing and a silver eye patch lying in there, dazed and shaking his head to get it over with. When he gained sense, he quickly jumped out of the hole, due to something coming down towards him. It was Negi. Having a really, bad, day. He charged at his opponent with a fist strike which the opposition blocked, countered with a kick, which Negi dodged and gave an elbow strike to his opponent, making him fly a fair good distance and slamming into a door, making it open. Negi followed quickly, ignoring the guards and his party with him.

"be because of Negi." Asuna managed to finish after witnessing his ultimate form. Everybody else had dropped their jaws at the sight of Negi being so powerful.

"I think I got a bit turned on there." Takane said to herself for everybody to hear. Nobody asked what she meant with that. Slowly everybody followed the two fighters. This was a battle they would not miss out on.

Negi was giving his opponent a very hard time in the hangar they were in. He was a lot faster than what his opponent originally was, not to mention giving some really hard punches. But his opposition had some tricks as well. With a few hand gestures, he had lifted several heavy objects into the air to fling at Negi, who merely smashed them to pieces. But the look on his face was frightened. He didn't expect to meet a brat this strong. How in the world did he get this powerful?

Negi smashed the last object to pieces and charged at his opponent. He had no choice but to draw his sword here.

_**SLASH…**_

Time stood still for a moment. Negi had went past his opponent, who had moved as well, holding his sword two-handed with the right hand on top and the left hand on the bottom of the handle, on his right side, close to the body. He turned his head to look at Negi, whose pupils were slowly returning. On his left arm, there was a minor slice from the sword. Negi looked at his opponent.

"Did you intend to give me a scratch, there?" He asked curiously.

"One scratch was all I needed." Was the answer he got from his opponent, who was grinning wildly. Negi looked oddly at him, before feeling something painful from his arm. When he looked at it, infections were happening all across it. His vision was getting blurry and his legs got weak, could barely hold his weight. And the last thing he saw was his students running towards him stretching out their hands.

Mei was the first to reach him and held up from the floor as Negi lost unconsciousness. She shook him in an attempt to wake him up, but to no avail. Before any of them, guns were loaded at them from every direction, and they were surrounded by heavily armoured soldiers, Negi's opponent sheathing his sword.

"He forced me to do it, little children." He said with something of a sad look on his face. "Don't worry, he's still alive. I don't kill children just like that."

Something snapped inside Asuna. She performed a shundo to close the distance between herself and the guy who talked, and swung her sword against his neck, only to stop at the last second. It was just one inch away from his neck. He merely took the time he had to look at it, up and down. He even plucked a hair strand from himself and pointed at the blade. It peeled into two strands. "Nice sword." He complimented her.

"I'm Asuna, princess of Ostia (3), battle companion to Negi, the mage you just injured." Asuna said sternly, not backing off her sword from his neck. He merely gave off a grin.

"Pleasure to meet you, your Highness. I am Fashtar, a simple student of xenology (4). I got the finance for this expedition by the local university on my home world." Fashtar said, still holding his grin before her. Asuna closed the distance between their faces, and the alien could read her expression. "Don't worry; you'll get free passage off this ship. How does that sound?"

Asuna grabbed him by the throat and pushed him down to the floor. Several guns were now directed at her, but Fashtar held them off. Asuna didn't flinch.

"You're going to take good care of Honya-chan, right?" She asked the alien she held by the throat. He gulped before he nodded. She pulled him close to his face.

"If she's hurt in any way, I'll crack your skull open." She squeezed tightly before letting go, allowing him to stand up before her. He cracked his neck twice.

"I'll look after her very well." The stare he received said she wasn't convinced. "What was that human term? Oh yeah; I cross my heart and hope to die."

Asuna didn't answer him, but turned to the others and picked up Negi, holding him close to him. "Let's go, everyone." She waited for Haruna to summon up something she could ride on.

"Hey." Fashtar called to them, and tossed Negi's staff to them, which Yue caught. It had a small white bag tied to it. Yue took it off the staff to examine it. "See it as a small bag of treats for Negi-kun. He deserves at least that much praise." Fashtar informed her.

Yue didn't respond to him, but merely took the staff to ride on for her and promptly followed the others who had left just a few seconds earlier.

"Shas'o." A brawny soldier in yellow carapace armour approached Fashtar. "Is it really wise to let them leave with information about us?"

"Don't worry." Fashtar assured him. "I got the hunch that this was not the final time I've met with Negi-kun." He then turned to a door leading to the upper levels. "Seal the breach entrance and prepare to jump into the Astral Sea. We're leaving." Everybody scrambled to their positions. Fashtar stopped for a brief moment to observe the small band of humans leaving for their home.

_This is not where, when, or how it ends Negi-kun. I look forward to next time. _He gave a telepathic message to the unconscious little mage who had scared the hell out of him truthfully. Honestly, this was the first time in decades that he had shaken so much.

**A/N: Okay, I rebooted a few things from the Coming Soon shot. And I hope this will satisfy you for a while, because I need to pick up on my studies too. During the sports break, you might see another chapter. This was the end of the Kidnap arc. Don't expect any promises from me though. Please read & review this.**

1 **A Big Bad is, well, a big bad meanie. Think of the usual super villains the hero meet in his life, and they duke it out in grand battles until either of them fall down and can't fight anymore.**

2 **This is the Tau race from the Warhammer 40k universe. You can have your own imagination of what they're doing here. Officially, they are the second visible crossover.**

3 **Don't you think it would work now that she has gained her memories from Fate? I think so, but she keeps it a secret from everybody else in the class.**

4 **Literally "Study of strangers", or more commonly "Study of aliens."**


	6. A new teacher?

**A/N: I don't like it when people don't give me reviews. It makes me sad, and thinks that nobody likes my writing. I do not own Negima, or Jack. I do own the concept of the aliens, the OCs in this story and a few ideas in here. Also, as a reminder; you can write in your reviews of any scene you recognize from somewhere.**

Chapter 6: At a time like this?

Sunlight welcomed him as Negi woke up slowly. Pain was still everywhere. He could barely move his limbs, never mind sit up without pain kicking in. Well, he could know one thing for sure: he was still alive. Trying to move his head, Negi saw at least that Asuna was asleep next to his form, her form sitting in a chair that had been moved closer to the bed. Wait, bed? He was lying in a bed? And it seemed familiar too. He eventually found that he was in the infirmary. Now he tried to lift his head and saw Setsuna standing in front of him, fully awake, not carrying Yuunagi, her blade.

"Good to see you're awake, Negi-sensei," Setsuna said, giving a weak smile to him. Negi couldn't smile as it would only bring pain, probably. Other people around began to notice that he was awake too. He saw Yue there too, holding a small white bag, Mei and Takane had been taking a nap next to each other too. Asuna woke up too, and the moment she laid eyes on Negi's awoken, before anyone could react, she had glomped him in a hug and squeezed tightly, making Negi choke. He could feel the tears run down on his neck.

"Where's, (cough), Haruna-san?" Negi asked despite his roommate crushing his lungs and nobody tried to stop her.

"Someone had to stand guard outside the infirmary." Yue answered for their previously heavily wounded teacher.

"And you're lucky to be alive." A male voice in English said. Negi bobbed his head to see a doctor dressed in his white coat along with carrying a clipboard. He looked to be in his late-twenties and was clean shaved. He wasn't native Japanese, but of European heritage instead.

"Um, sensei, this is…" Takane started, though she was a bit embarrassed to talk in front of a mundane doctor. (She spoke in English, for your info)

"Doctor Jack Shephard (1). I was called over to help in the operation when they couldn't really achieve a lot." Jack said as he approached the bed. He looked at the clipboard and continued. "You had been infected with venom similar to what cobras have, only cobras are more deadly. We managed to isolate it back in the left arm where you received the venom, and extract it from there. Then we transported you back here from the hospital."

"I'm back at the school!?" Negi gasped still being by Asuna. Then he remembered that he was still in pain. Because his back just gave away. "AAAAHHH!" Asuna let go immediately since her ear was next to his mouth as he screamed.

"Negi-sensei?! Is something wrong?" Ayaka's voice could be heard from outside the infirmary, before more rough voices were heard as well. "Let me pass, Haruna-san! Negi-sensei needs me in there!"

"Iinchou! Wait out here! Negi-kun needs to rest! Quartium, watch the door!" Haruna shouted over the voices of the class outside, while apparently the golem resembling Fate was holding the door tightly. For being a golem, he didn't seem to flinch at all from the girls.

"Haruna! I and Sakuraku just want to see to Madoka in there!" Misa's voice was heard as well. It hit home in Negi's head. After looking around in the infirmary, he found Madoka also in bed, though it wasn't hard to spot since she was in the bed opposite to his. She was also awake, but she had this look in her eyes, looking into the skies for something that wasn't there.

"Well, excuse me, but I've got a plane to catch, Negi." Jack said, brushing off his jacket. "You stay in bed for today, restrain from doing physical activities for three days in total and you'll be fine, even with your arm wrapped in bandage. It should stay like that for a week and then you can take it off."

That's when Negi noticed his left arm was in a splint, covered in bandage. Jack promptly left the room and from there instructed the girls outside to leave him alone for today. Negi turned to the others in the infirmary. "Would you mind leaving me and Madoka-san alone here? I need to talk to her."

Asuna and Setsuna looked to each other, Yue turned to look at Madoka and Mei along Takane looked at each other as well. Eventually they all quietly left the infirmary and being nearly overrun by the rest of the class. Konoka could be heard outside wishing to make Negi all better in an instant, but Asuna told her not to, because Negi needed the free space.

"Madoka-san." He said quietly. She blinked while still looking at the sky and then slowly turned her head to look at Negi. He could clearly see the sadness in her eyes. "Negi-kun." Her tone was almost life-less, as if there were no emotions at all.

"I'm going to take it that you know, now?" Negi asked her. Madoka nodded in return.

"Iinchou told me everything she knew from what you and Asuna told her. I don't know what you've been through, but it doesn't seem to have been simple or pleasant from what I saw on the rooftop."

Negi had to agree on that one. He had intentionally left out what he and the rest of the White Wings had been doing in the Magic World. He had to lie to Ayaka about what really happened when Fate struck. Instead, he told her that the gate was going awry and that they had to wait for a month until they could get home again. Fate was mentioned once, but only as an old familiar face they met once before. Technically speaking that was true, but they neglected what Fate had done in the past, or what he looked like.

"I didn't want her to know everything. It was to keep her safe from what I'm doing at the best." Negi said looking down at the railings of his bed. He felt shame on himself for letting Madoka coming to harm by those… men. That was the only description he had for them at the moment, until he learnt another name for them.

"I'm sorry for letting them know." Madoka said, catching Negi off guard. What did she mean by that? "They caught me as I was walking home from late-shift practice. Next thing I know is that they asked me where they could find Honya-chan. I refused stubbornly, so they…I don't know really… pried open my mind. It was as if he who touched me peeked into my mind, and he learned. I was in pain the whole time, but I couldn't scream. They wouldn't let me. He touched around my head about here and here and-"

She stopped at the spot where the head meets the neck, beneath the chin. She started rubbing the place slowly, and they could both hear this rasping sound where she rubbed it. When Madoka lifted her head for Negi to see, he saw a pair of burn marks, the size of thumbs. He could feel his anger boil in his blood though it hurt him slightly. They had not only kidnapped a student and friend close to him, they had also hurt another one and left scars on her too! His dark magic somehow came to life inside him, showing Madoka what he could really do.

Madoka got frightened by this look of his. This is what Negi can really do? Just what has he been learning in this "Magic World" Ayaka told her about? It must have been hell if he learned something like that. She didn't know what it was, but she had her gut telling her that it was very dangerous. She quickly rose from her bed and tried to get hold of Negi, trying to snap him out of it.

"Negi-kun! It's nothing on me really! People get scars everyday! It will go away eventually!" Nothing of it worked on Negi, as the darkness just increased instead of decreased.

"Boya? Stand down." Another voice was heard inside the room. This time it had effect. Negi's darkness faded slowly away. Madoka turned to see both Evangeline having a stern look on her face and Yue having her usual look on her face as well, holding the same white bag she had carried in the infirmary earlier.

"Getting mad now isn't going to help at all." Evangeline scolded her disciple. "You screwed up and now she's gone. Hopefully not forever. Until we find a way to get to them, she's gone."

That hit home in both Negi and Yue. Nodoka was gone and there was nothing they could do to get her back from those guys. For now, they could just sit here and do nothing.

"Negi-sensei." Yue spoke up finally. "The one you fought introduced himself as Fashtar. Asuna-san managed to get him to promise that Nodoka wouldn't come to harm in any way at least."

"Fashtar…" Negi repeated. _This is not where, when, or how it ends, Negi-kun. I look forward to next time. _As if by activation, Fashtar's voice was heard in Negi's head, giving him quite the fright. The three girls with him noticed this. "What's wrong, Negi-kun?" Madoka asked him.

"I heard his voice inside my head just now." Negi said and repeated what Fashtar's voice had said. Evangeline huffed and made a guess that it meant that they would meet again some day.

"He also left this for you, sensei. He called it a small bag of treats, but so far I've been unable to open it." Yue handed Negi the bag and he stared at it. He had to sigh. He failed one of his most important promises: protecting his students at all costs.

"No training for now, boya. You have a splint arm and I need the time to set up a new training schedule for you. Take your time off to decide what to do with what time is given to you." Evangeline said and left the room rather quickly. Outside, she met up with the person she's been planning with.

"He's all yours. Make your move when you want to."

Her associate would smile if he felt like it.

* * *

The official story for Nodoka's disappearance was that she had gone to her family's home for a long term vacation abroad. Everyone was told to keep it quiet from the mundane people in case anybody asked. The martial artists were paid handsomely to keep their lips sealed and to say that it was a false alarm. Negi's arm was explained as an accident where he severely hurt himself. Takamichi had covered up for him during his rest, and the class had visited him when class was over. And again, Ayaka was overdoing it with luxurious gifts and presents. How fast did her workers make bust statues, really? It was a good one at least.

The next day, however, Negi was ready to teach yet again. For insurance, he had put his magic ring on his right arm which was free. Even though the danger was over, one could never be too sure when the next danger would arrive.

Just before class began, Shizuna came and opened the door to 3-A's room. "Negi-kun, Konoe-gakuenshou-sensei has an assignment for you. Can you handle it?"

"Ah, sure." Negi said nervously with a sheepish smile.

"We have a new teacher's assistant who needs to be taught the basics. He'll be in your care."

Negi was stunned and the magic involved girls were also stunned. A new teacher at this time? Just what was the headmaster thinking really? "You can come in now." Shizuna called to someone.

They saw a young man in his mid-twenties enter the room. He was brown-haired with a short haircut and clad casually, unlike most teachers around. Blue jeans, a white shirt and a dark green suit with three buttons and a fake top pocket were his choice of clothing. And his most distinguished feature was the necklace made of gold and silver chain links with a coin in Greek design. He also wore a pair of rectangle glasses2. He calmly walked up to the blackboard and wrote his in perfect Kanji as well as in the Greek alphabet just to be a show off. The he turned to the class.

"Good day, girls. I'm Bardas Komnenos, and I'll be your teacher's assistant for a while. Please take care of me." He said with a smile and green eyes. Everybody was charmed with his soft voice. Negi was a little charmed, he'll admit, but there was something odd about this man. He just couldn't place it at the moment. Regardless, everybody clapped their hands in approval of this teacher. _Best be discreet of this teacher for now_, thought those involved with magic.

The lesson went perfectly smoothly, with Negi and Bardas working together like two cogs in a machine. The girls were very impressed with the methods Bardas used when he was showing something. Very knowledgeable too. After class…

"I'm amazed, Bardas-sensei! Where did you go to school?" Negi asked with Konoka, Evangeline and Ayaka at his side.

"Oh, I went to Athens when I was a child and I graduated in college there. I had the top grades in over two years." Bardas said nonchalant, when Shizuna came up from behind him.

"Bardas-sensei. Gakuenshou will see you now. And Eva-chan, guide him, will you dear?"

"Sure. Go ahead you guys, I'll get him back fast enough." Evangeline said, strangely putting up her own act. She doesn't usually do something like this, unless she really feels like it, or she is up to something. Negi and Konoka severely hoped for the former. In any case, she went with the new teacher, and since they could see it, she had a smile on her lips.

* * *

"I see. So that's why you decided to come to Mahora, on our turf." Konoemon said as he observed this 'Bardas Komnenos' who had presumably come from Athens to teach. Well, this one had come to teach, but it was not of conventional methods.

"That's right, Konoemon-san. Otherwise I wouldn't have come here at all." Bardas responded to the elder. His attitude had changed too. It wasn't that of a casual one but more of one who didn't seem to have any emotion at all.

"When are you making your move at Negi-kun?" The headmaster had to ask him that at least, so he wouldn't be worried when it would happen.

"This evening. And I brought in my units as well in the estimated location as well. If it works, then there shouldn't be much trouble in moving them." Bardas responded to the inquired question.

"So then, it's a deal." Eva spoke up. "You and your troops hold up in my castle resort, and train boya until his next encounter with this Fashtar guy, whilst leaving the others out of it. But Chachamaru gets to see him."

"On the condition she doesn't tell the others, then it should be fine." Bardas said to Eva. They shook hands and Bardas shook hands with a reluctant headmaster, whose worry for Negi was clear for him to see.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt him too bad."

* * *

"I really am surprised with you." Eva told her associate as they walked back to the classroom, while Bardas looked at her in confusion, without changing his face expression. "You're willing to take on Boya as a disciple of your own."

"I have no intention of making it personal between me and Negi-kun. We just have common goals this time." Bardas responded immediately.

"Come on, now. I'm surprised that you actually decided to come here to train Negi-kun. I find it somewhat ironic." Eva continued, seemingly taking pleasure in this scenario. Bardas merely responded to her by taking off his glasses, turning to her and revealing a pair of grey eyes instead of green.

"I don't have any intention at all, Evangeline A.K. McDowell. It's just common goals this time. That's all there is to it."

"So, you're not going to enjoy the look on his face when he finds out tonight?" She continued. Bardas was speechless at first and then turned away from her eye contact.

"Well, maybe just a little…"

"Well, I won't pursue it further than this for now. But you're doing a great job. Keep it up." Eva said as she opened the door while Bardas put on his glasses to make his eyes green again. His act came back as the popping began.

"Welcome, Bardas-sensei!" Everyone screamed as he came into the room. He had the look of someone being surprised. It was perfect the way he acted.

* * *

Later that evening as the sun set outside the school itself, most of them were gathered outside to discuss the party.

"Wow, I didn't expect you guys to throw a party for my sake. Do you do this often?" Bardas asked the girls whilst holding a box of welcome gifts from them. They really put their hearts into it. The parties were probably another reason why they used to be the worst class when it came to studying.

"Well," Yuuna, one of those officially recognized as a party holder started. "Only when we get a new teacher or when it's a very special occasion."

"Like when Chao-san was going to quit because of some family thing." Ayaka informed the new teacher, who gasped in surprise.

"I take it she got better gifts than what I got when her party was held." Bardas said, looking at the box containing the various presents that he got from the girls.

"It was the best we could do at the time!" several voices cried out at once, from the more energetic ones in class, shocking the new arrival by their behaviour. "Why, do you want better stuff?" Misa then asked him with a leer on her face.

"Uh, no. This is good enough." Bardas quickly responded to her request. There's no telling what someone with a smile like that will offer.

"Okay, girls. Everyone back to their rooms. I'll guide Bardas-sensei to the teachers' dorm and then I'll come back." Negi said, receiving a collective 'Yes' from all the girls who then proceeded to go to the dorm rooms. Negi went ahead and Bardas followed quickly with his box. A bit forward as they were approaching the university's festival stage, Bardas managed to catch up with Negi.

"Hey, Negi-sensei?" he asked the young boy, who in teacher terms was his superior.

"Yes?" Negi responded.

"I noticed there were three empty seats in the classrooms. Why is that?"

"Ah. The first seat next to the window is a permanent empty, because that's where the school ghost is supposed to sit." Negi answered.

"Ah, I see." Bardas said before having a minor freak out. "Eh?! Ghost!?"

"Don't worry about that. Sayo-san may be a ghost, but she is kind at least. Though it was quite hectic when she introduced herself to us."

"Oh. And the other two?"

"The one in the back used to belong to Chao Lingshen-san. She was the school's top mind, but she had to quit because of family issues back home. We keep it empty as homage to her." Negi explained to the confused arrival. "The one in front is for Miyazaki Nodoka-san, who is on a long-term vacation with her family."

"So she won't be back for a while, right?" Bardas asked the knowledgeable kid. _I knew it. You can't hide it from me, Negi-kun, not with those eyes of yours._

"That's correct." Negi then noticed that the teacher was looking at his arm. "Ah, I just fell down some stairs, that's all, if that's what you're wondering about."

Bardas merely nodded in return and then noticed the big scene. "Ooh, what's this place?" he asked, walking to the scene.

"This is the university's festival scene. We have a huge three-day festival every year. The next one should be in about five months or so." Negi said following him. But then, as he approached Bardas, he sensed hostile magic energy, it was surging from somewhere. He didn't know where it came from, but it was headed directly towards where Bardas stood at the moment!

"Watch out!" Negi rushed forward and pushed Bardas out of the way and narrowly avoided being impaled by shadow lances. As the two of them tumbled forward, they saw several figures standing spread out among the seats of the scene. Where did they come from? The shadow lances were connected at least to one of them, one of who Negi recognized at least.

_Kagetarou of Bosporos? What's he doing here in Japan?_ Negi thought as he and Bardas rose from their prone positions.

"About time…Negi Springfield. Long time no see." Kagetarou started as his lances retreated back to him. Then he noticed the other, adult teacher. "You. Get out of here. This has nothing to do with you."

Upon commandment, Bardas turned tail and ran for it from the scene, while the opposition ignored him mostly. There was only one who looked back as Bardas went past him.

_Okay, chances are they set up a barrier. I got a broken arm in splint, there are four of them, I can't do any physical activities at all, they all look like close combat types and I can't get back up from anyone at this hour in time to have a chance against all of them. Oh, bugger._ This is what Negi thought as his opposition came down upon him.

* * *

Asuna and Konoka were in their dorm room at the moment. Asuna were in her pyjamas in bed and Konoka were getting changed as well, in the living room since Negi wasn't there.

"Negi-kun is getting late. Is he helping Bardas-sensei with something?" Konoka asked out of the blue.

"He probably is showing around the place while he's at it." Asuna responded trying to sleep. "He needs to spend some extra energy after all. Just as long he doesn't get into trouble."

**A/N: Asuna, you have no idea…**

1 **Yes, he is the same character from Lost. Remember, the date is set **_**before**_** he ended up on that island.**

2 **I based this design on what I look like when I was writing this. Minus the necklace.**


	7. What the?

**A/N: Okay, now let's ready. This will be a short, maybe very short chapter, but just so that this arc will be complete. Also, just because I based "Bardas" on my own clothes, doesn't mean that he looks like me.**

Chapter 7: You!?

Haruna and Yue were looking through their room to see if there was anything left of what Fashtar's men had taken with them. Apparently, they had taken the opportunity to steal most or all of Nodoka's possessions as well with her. It felt a bit bad for them that they had done such a thing, but in Nodoka's case, it would be a very good thing, since Fashtar probably didn't know what they could do. For now at least…

"Have you found anything yet?" Haruna asked Yue, who was looking for a little box where Nodoka kept her magical items. Haruna was looking for her mundane items, such as journal, books to read, and a custom made dougi (1) they had bought together for when they were going through close combat training with Setsuna, Ku Fei and Kaede. Being a disciple of a mage doesn't mean you can't skip combat training in martial arts too.

"No, they took the box. Even her pactio card." Yue said sadly after looking everywhere.

"They even got her dougi. They really did take everything." Haruna said after confirming the absence of Nodoka's aforementioned outfit.

"They certainly knew when and how to strike at us." Yue said with her stern look.

"What do you mean?" Haruna asked with a metaphorical question mark on her face.

"At the start of our encounter, Fashtar-san underestimated us and sent in well-trained but weak units to get Nodoka. They hadn't checked out our own strength and thus we sent them running back to their commander. What did Fashtar-san do? He then had the knowledge of our strength and sent in the best troops he had with him. And they used the best items they had available against leaving us incapacitated. But he hadn't seen Negi-sensei in action with his Magia Erebea, so he had to fix it himself. And then there's the little bag he left us."

"What about it?" Haruna asked again.

"I tried my best all night trying to open it, but it was enhanced with heavy magic, and every time I tried to dispel it, it would backfire on me." Yue responded, pulling out her artefact. "I tried looking it up in my artefact, but there were no matching articles on it at all."

"Hello, alien item, do you think your book would cover that as well?" Haruna aksed this time sarcastically. Yue merely huffed and supposed not.

"By the way, did you also sense it?" Yue asked this time about something.

"Sense what?"

"Bardas-sensei. I sensed that he had magic energy." Yue said.

"Well, it shouldn't be any surprise there at all. Nearly half of the teachers here are magi to begin with." Haruna said, shaking her head at her friend.

"True and his wasn't over the usual scale. I suppose he is just an ordinary mage like the others." Yue said.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the university's festival scene, Bardas ran up the stairs there that lead away from the scene and quickly dove into cover behind one of the pillars. Good grief, he though to himself. He could barely keep it up anymore, that acting stuff. Fortunately, Negi was very gullible for taking the bait. Bardas could have easily have dodged Kagetarou's shadow lances, but that would have ruined the whole ambush. But it worked at least.

_Negi-kun nearly found me out there. Good thing that the timing was perfect. Now let's see if Negi-kun is willing to listen to my real me…_

"Could you have kept it up a little longer? It was fun to watch." A voice behind him said as Bardas removed his glasses and his grey eyes showed themselves to behold Wilhelm Josef von Hermann, a certain demon with whom he had worked together with before.

"Wilhelm. I told you that it was strictly professional with the disguise." Bardas said as he ruffled his hair around and it turned snow white and spiky.

"Well, it was good to watch anyhow. I saw the party they held for you. You must have had espionage training or something, since Negi-kun bought it too." Wilhelm continued. Bardas merely looked back at him for a while.

"One of the things I was created for. But Negi-kun wouldn't have bought it for long. I reckon he would have found out tonight or tomorrow if I kept it up."

"That explains why it had to happen tonight. Should I get down there and help the others while your disguise wears off?" Wilhelm asked his apparent employer in disguise.

"Go ahead." Bardas said, removing his necklace. "I'll catch up." Wilhelm dashed off to where Negi was fighting Kagetarou. Bardas' face changed slowly as well as his clothes until they had a dark blue colour on them and it was shaped into a Japanese school uniform for all-boys' schools.

* * *

Negi had to admit this. Kagetarou picked the best chance to ambush him. They haven't entered close combat at all, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was a good thing because it made sure Negi's arm would heal just in time for him to beat these guys if he got away. The bad thing about it all was that it was apparently Kagetarou's specialty and his friend had guns.

"I'm impressed, kiddo!" he cried out to Negi. "Even with my bullets being guided telepathically, you're the first one to actually dodge them!" Here's what he looks like. This one is dressed neatly in Victorian dressing, clad in a charcoal suit with leather riding boots, along with a red bowtie, covered in a long red overcoat. Also, he has a red fedora hat with a short, sloppy brim. He carries a pair of Sig-Saur p228 pistols (2) as his weapons of choice.

"I might actually get a little serious on this!" He continued as he fired the four final rounds of his two guns. "Damn, ran out of ammo…"

"Raziel! Don't take that boy lightly! He's the one who beat Rakan!" Kagetarou shouted at his red dressed companion while trying to ensnare Negi with his shadows.

"Wait, he's that guy?! Well that changes things!" Raziel, apparently the one dressed in red said as he pulled out a pactio card and said "_Adeat._" Out came another pair of pistols. When he grabbed them, they changed somehow, into a single firearm mounted on the arm with dual muzzles and no apparent magazine holder.

_He's got an artefact!?_ Negi thought as the firearm fired in auto fire. Fortunately, Negi was quick to avoid the shots, and Raziel was probably aiming to distract him, so Kagetarou could get him instead. Only, it wasn't the latter that landed a punch on Negi's face, it was a newcomer. And the punch was very powerful for Negi to be flung backwards and land on his back. His arm in splint wasn't injured.

"We just want to talk, Negi-kun, that's all." Wilhelm's voice was heard as Negi tried to rise up from his position.

"Even Wilhelm-san. How come you're here in the first place?" Negi had to ask this time. Wilhelm looked first at Kagetarou, then at Raziel and finally at the exit of the festival stage, then turned back to Negi.

"I'm not the one pulling the strings here, Negi-kun. We were just told to make sure that you listen to what he has to tell you." Wilhelm said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Who?" Negi asked before feeling a hand on his head.

"Me." An all too familiar voice said from behind. When Negi tried to turn around, he felt a powerful punch to his ribcage, making him fall down a good six feet away from where he stood. But he managed to get a view of who punched him when he landed.

"Out of everybody that I've faced, it just had to be you, Fate." Negi said in anger as he stared at Fate Averruncus, the same geomancer he had encountered and been beaten by several times, until Ostia. Fate merely looked back at Negi's defiant eyes.

"One last time, what are you doing here?" Negi asked all of them. Fate closed his eyes for a moment and then responded.

"Before your encounter with them, I ran into these humanoid creatures as well. After a brief encounter with them myself, I learned that they had plans for our own world. Normally, I wouldn't care about this sort of thing at all, but since it would interfere with my own plans, I intend to stop them." Fate said calmly at the angry request from his enemy.

"That's why I gathered up Kagetarou, Wilhelm, Raziel and others to prepare for a war if it comes to it." He continued.

"So how come you're here at Mahora, practically a magic fortress, where dozens of mages can come down on your heads?" Negi asked this time, curious at their presence.

"That's very simple. You are also needed for this." Fate answered bluntly. "The other teachers except Takamichi-kun don't know, and the headmaster has given me permission to be here as well. Evangeline-san is also in on this."

"Who?" Raziel asked his employer.

"The Doll Master, Gospel of Darkness, Disciple of Destruction, call her whatever you wish." Fate answered back, making Raziel shiver upon hearing few of many titles Evangeline has had through the centuries. Through the clattering of his teeth, Negi saw that Raziel was a vampire as well. Though possibly not a Shinso vampire, hence why he appeared at night.

"So let me get this straight, then." Negi said sternly, trying to rise up. "You came all this way, from Mundus Magicus to Japan, to fight off an alien incursion, and you want my help to do it?"

"That's correct, Negi-kun. And although you would say that you do not have a reason to help us…" Fate said before performing a shundou to appear in front of Negi. "Now you do. I know about Miyazaki. It's become personal for you in this. Deny it as much as you want to, but you and I are comrades in this situation right now. I don't know when they will strike, so I do not plan to be caught on the bed rise as they pillage Earth and eventually find Mundus Magicus. What do you say?" Fate eventually reaches out a hand, probably for Negi to shake it.

Negi had to think deeply about this. Fate was right. It was personal for Negi, since Fashtar had abducted his student, friend and partner Nodoka, actually one of few he would consider going on a date with if he wasn't a teacher at Mahora. But that it was personal didn't mean as it wasn't for Fate as well. He was clever covering up his personal matter in it by saying that they would screw up the plans of Cosmo Entelecheia, and it was true. Negi began to raise his hand but stopped just their hands made contact. "I only got one question."

"Yes?"

"If it wasn't personal for me in the first place, why me?" Negi asked his opponent, leaving him with his 'puzzled' look. Meaning, his eyes widened slightly.

"Well, saving the world runs in the family, doesn't it?" Fate responded after a while. "You can't help being the little saviour of the world. Simple as that."

Negi frowned on those words, but in the end, Fate was right yet again. So Negi slammed his hand into Fate's. "Fine. But don't expect me to do everything you say."

Negi noticed a very faint smile on Fate's lips. "I never thought of it that way, you little rebel."

_

* * *

Roughly two days later_

Nodoka woke up in a strange room with soft violet lights on. The smell was very sweet, very nice. Petals of an unknown flower or flowers were spread all over the place. It was like a princess' room in a palace.

But then she began to remember. What had really happened to her. This wasn't a dream. It was real, the attacks, her abduction, all of it. She found that she was naked as well. Do these aliens take no heed to privacy at all!? She quickly covered herself n case there was a peeping Tom nearby. Even if she wasn't well endowed, one could never tell with culture differences.

A small probe hovered in midair, giving off a small buzzing sound. She looked at it, as it hovered towards her, then producing a soft hologram resembling a rectangle with a small orb made of large pixels that presented a purple cube. This confused her. The orb in the hologram repeated the action. Eventually, Nodoka understood the trick and pressed on the cube. It presented her with the purple cube along with a yellow next to it. She pressed first the purple one and then the yellow one. This time, a red one appeared as well. When she pressed the red cube after the first two, a final blue cube appeared after the other three. When she completed the code, the hologram shut and in big letters in English, the probe wrote: 'WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HOME'.

Nodoka just had to say this for once in her whole life in which she hasn't found a situation to say it, but now it was a very good opportunity since nobody was around. "Fuck."

**

* * *

A/N: Did you honestly believe that Bardas was an OC? I mean, really, did you? Oh, don't sue me, please. I for one can see Negi and Fate, if their goals are common, work together. Furthermore, my pen seemed to have dried up at the moment, so let's call it a pause here. We will see how things go for Nodoka in the next chapter, so stay tuned. I got studies to do!**

**1 Essentially an outfit for learning martial arts in Japan. By the way, they haven't had their practical CC training yet.**

**2 These are the official firearms for several police forces in Europe. Look them up on the Internet.**


	8. New arrivals

**A/N: I'm back! I had to do finish at least some parts of a school project I'm working on. We'll be following Nodoka for now, so prepare for some crossover characters in this chapter.**

_Nine hours before Nodoka woke up…_

"Alright, let's get them out of there!" Fashtar shouted as they opened up the tank filled with humans from Earth. Not only were they from various places of planet Earth, they were also prime specimen, capable of the best humans could do. Shame the latest person, the mage girl they picked up, was still learning, but it was also a perfect example on how one could learn several magic styles at the same time. 'Course, she, along with that young Russian were the hardest to get in the first place.

"First one out: a Kendo user, wooden sword wielder and owner of a magical sword she received from a friend who is a magic user. It seems she is familiar with magic to an extent." A crewmember holding a data slate stated as two other crewmembers, brawny and big pulled out a young girl with pink hair. She was of Japanese origin as well, and having a flat chest.

"What's her designation?" Fashtar asked standing next to the data slate holder.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Her name, idiot." Fashtar 'gently' informed the holder.

"Oh. Designation: Hinagiku Katsura. She has an older sister on Earth as well."

The two fishermen proceeded to pick up a middle sized man, with quality muscles and brown hair, his body built as a fighter.

"Next: This is a boxer. No affiliation with magic whatsoever. Designation: Thomas Randall. Orphaned at an early age, no siblings, small time underground fighter, no one is going to miss him." The data slate holder stated as the boxer was being taken past him and Fashtar.

"Hmm. Their fighting styles can be so crude." Fashtar said in near disgust. But then, he remembered the fight with Negi. "And at the same time, be so effective like you wouldn't believe it."

"Sir, should we continue?" The accountant asked him. Fashtar snapped back to reality and gestured that they continue. The fishermen then took out Nodoka together with a huge, muscular man with grey spiky hair. His body would be, at the moment, described as perfectly built for combat.

"We have two this time. First one: Magic user, apprentice level. Holds an array of magic items at her disposal. Designation: Nodoka Miyazaki. Has the ability to read minds through a magic book only she can summon." The accountant said as they dried off Nodoka's body and took her away to some place. "Next one: SAMBO fighter. He is a big one. Designation: Boris Ivanov. Military training, sergeant level, this guy is way above our expectations."

"Why do you think I sent a walker in order to get him?" Fashtar asked sarcastically as two more crewmembers aided the first two carry 'Boris Ivanov' to a floating table and laying him on it. From there another person built like Fashtar, not unlike the Tau crewmen who fished up Boris, took the table and escorted the large Russian away.

"Right, I'm leaving you to do the rest of the fishing. I'll go see to the rest of the stuff we brought in from Earth. I want their clothes washed clean and sterilised, and check their equipment for anything unusual and finally, I want to see them in action once they're awake."

Fashtar left the room alongside the humans that had been taken out of the tank. Then he stopped and looked at the guards eyeing the human girls. "And no molesting!"

_

* * *

Present time...  
_

A lot went through her mind as Nodoka came to realization that she was alone on an alien world, without her friends whatsoever. Okay, hold on, at least these guys are hospitable. Yes, that's a good thing. The air on this planet seemed to be breathable for humans too, another good thing. They had taken away her clothes, which is a bad thing. There weren't any cameras in the room except the one above what seemed to be a door, wait, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

A noise next to her right gave off, making her jump out of bed, still naked. When she turned her head towards the noise, she saw that it was what resembled a phone of some sorts. Very odd design for a phone. It kept ringing, so she assumed that it was for her. That camera must be there for security purpose. She picked up what she assumed to be the ear piece.

"Hello?"

"_Good morning, young miss! Had a good sleep?" _A rather cheerful voice greeted her through the ear piece, and it sounded a bit familiar.

"Frank-san?" Nodoka just had to ask. She could have sworn she heard a funny sound from the other side.

"_Well, you can call me that, since my real name is a bit difficult to say." _His voice sounded a bit sad. _"Anyway, there are clean clothes in a drawer to your left. Get them on and then go out through the door and then go to your left. Third door to the right is where you assemble."_

"Um, thank you… I guess." Nodoka said and began to hang up when she heard something else. "Sorry?"

"_I said, one more thing; you might want to lose some weight, your butt looks a bit big." _

Nodoka got the chills on the spot and turned an angry look at the camera, which responded by being shut down rather quickly. And then the phone hangs up on her.

* * *

Meanwhile, Frank was sobbing slightly because of what Nodoka had said. "She called me Frank…" He whined to his companion sitting next to him in the security and monitoring station.

"There, there, Frank." His buddy said. "It's not really that bad, is it?"

"Please don't call me Frank."

* * *

A few moments later, Nodoka was fully dressed in a tunic with linen wrappings to keep it together, and followed 'Frank's' directions. After opening the door, she found several other humans there as well. None of which she knew at all, and they were most from different parts of the world. There was even a little boy, seemingly from Thailand.

"Oh, boy, another one." A middle sized guy by the looks of it said as Nodoka entered the room. "So, how did they get you?"

"Eh?" Nodoka wondered at his question.

"Oh. I was just the first one to come in here. I got curious on how everybody got captured and all that, but no one has answered me really." The man said.

"If that's the case," Nodoka started looking curiously at him. "Then why don't you start, since you don't seem to have told anyone your part." She finished, catching him by surprise. The others eyed him carefully.

"Sigh, alright, I'll tell you my story. I was on my way back home from a boxing match; I practice boxing and fight in the underground for a living. When I passed the pub that I always have a drink at after a fight, they showed up. I got about four of them down before I got hit from behind. There, I said my story. Anyone else?"

A young girl with pink hair and a flat chest but a few years older than Nodoka began her side. "I was on my way home after school when I saw an old looking person with wrinkles, coughing heavily for me to stop by and ask him what was wrong. He said he was looking for someone, and I asked who. He just looked at me, and the next thing I know is that someone put a chloroformed handkerchief over my face." She stepped forward to Nodoka, bearing a curious look about her.

Another one, a male, but Nodoka closed her eyes to listen well to this one. "I was travelling through the snowy lands of Siberia, looking for my master." This voice was stern and direct. He seemed to speak the truth. "In the midst of a blizzard, I was having poor eyesight when they came. Or rather, it came. A huge walker by the looks of it said he had been ordered to bring me in. I resisted for a long while, but he managed to take me down."

The room suddenly went dark, surprising everyone inside. A circular light opened up in the centre of the room, with humanoid shadows moving about in it.

"**Welcome to Tu'narath." **A monotone deep voice said in English almost immediately after the light opened. **"Your belongings will be returned now after nine hours of examination."**

"How come they speak English?" Thomas asked curiously.

"**When your name is called, step into the light and you will receive your belongings."** It took about three before the first name came. **"Boris Ivanov."**

A huge man, with Russian characteristics and grey spiky hair much like Takamichi stepped into the light. He was incredibly muscular as the arms were shown free. Down came a small ornamented chest with weird markings on it. It was small enough to fit into just one hand of Boris. He looked at it curiously before turning his head to look directly into the light.

"Question. You said you would return our belongings. Why is it just a small crate?" Boris asked with a stern look on his face. Nodoka recognized him as the one who spoke about the walker.

"**If you don't know what a chest of Holding is, then please ask the mage in your group after all of you have received your belongings. Speaking of whom, Nodoka Miyazaki."**

Upon hearing her name, Nodoka went to the light, with Boris standing aside for her. **"You have two boxes."** The voice said before the two boxes came down, the first was a chest equal to Boris' and then her own box in which she stored her magical items. Shortly afterwards everybody had their own chest with their belongings in them.

"Okay. Now what's a Chest of Holding?" Boris asked Nodoka directly, giving her a jump. The others looked her way as well.

"Um, well, a chest of Holding is basically a storage device…"

"We know, that's what a chest is." The middle aged identified as Thomas Randall said sarcastically.

"Please let me finish. The chest of Holding is magically enhanced so that you can put a near infinite amount of items in them and carry them around without any weight change at all."

The others looked at her in a combination of awe and doubt. Thomas was one with doubt. Boris was unchanged at all. He merely huffed.

"So theoretically, all our belongings should be in these chests." Boris stated as he opened his chest. And he pulled out military attire with shoulder pads. There was no flag on the attire.

"Yes, that would be the case." Nodoka said, opening her own small box and pulled out her pactio card.

"**Now that you have settled with each other, you have four days to prepare. On the fifth day, you will meet your other inmates. We see it fit to test out a race's combat abilities after their arrival here on Tu'narath. As your race is familiar with the art of war and you are new**** arrivals, you have the right to pick the battlefield ground. You can pick it any day you want. You will now be left to your own methods." **The light in the centre turned off and the lights of the room were on again. Boris took the opportunity to head for the door.

"Hey, where you going?" Thomas asked him. Boris merely turned and answered him.

"We have four days before battle. I'm going to practice."

**

* * *

Day 1**

It was just minutes after they had returned to their rooms. Nodoka had opened her chest to find that her clothes were in it, as well as some extra books of European magic. Her hosts seemed to have prepared for most things. She also found her own dougi that she had got together with Yue and Haruna. She thought of that moment then for approximately five minutes before snapping out of it and returning to her duty of unpacking. She was so busy with the thing that she didn't notice that someone was there.

"You didn't answer." Hinagiku said after Nodoka had her time of shock. She gently walked towards the startled mage. "Sorry that I scared you."

"It's fine, Hinagiku-san. I was just busy with my own business." Nodoka said after coming to her senses. For all she knew it could have been a guy.

"So… Are the things you said about being a mage true? I mean, I've heard of the concept and haven't laughed at it, but I just could barely believe what I heard back then." Hinagiku said fidgeting her fingers. One could see the anxiety in her eyes. Nodoka offered a weak smile to her.

"Yes, it's true. Otherwise I wouldn't talk about things like that. It was a bit of a shock to me as well when I found out. in the midst of a battle between my teacher and who eventually came to be his best friend."

"Really? Who won?"

"Sensei did, with my help… I had the mind reading book back then; it was my first day with it." Nodoka said pulling out her pactio card.

"Hey, what's that?" Hinagiku, the pink haired girl asked her seeing the card.

"This is my pactio card. Officially, I'm a disciple to a master mage, so I have this card in order to borrow my master's magic power to enhance my own. It also gives me a magic artefact, my greatest asset. It can read minds." Nodoka said showing it up.

"That's amazing. I got something of a magic item too, though mine is more combat-oriented." Hinagiku showed her sword. It was made out of wood, but it had the cutting edge of a katana. Its handle wrapped in linen, it pulsated with magic energy at a surprising high level. "A mage that I know gave me it. I didn't believe her to be a mage when we properly met, but this is quite something. She called it: Wooden Masamune (1). Pretty nice, huh?"

Nodoka could only nod, since she was not a combat partner. Still, it wasn't really farfetched for her to be learned how to fight.

"Still, could you show me some spells you can use?" Hinagiku continued. To make it easier, her name will be shortened to Hina. "They said we would be going into battle in four days. Do you have anything we can use?"

Nodoka had to think about that one. True, she had learned magic arrows and disarmament very quickly with Yue's help and Negi's too, but she lacked the true firepower of a mage. That was being covered up for by their hosts as they called them for now.

"Well, sure." Nodoka took her practice wand and stood from their sitting positions. She chose an empty wall without decorations, and charged it up. Nodoka had yet to choose a spell key, which took a long time to find for you, but she could at least muster five arrows without chanting. The arrows were of Light, and exploded against the wall, leaving several markings where they struck.

"Wow." Hina managed to say after a while. It didn't take long for the door to open.

"What was that noise?" Boris came in and wondered. After a moment's chat, all three of them were discussing the whole idea of magic.

"Well, it is a good thing you know how to make those without chanting." Boris commented Nodoka after hearing the story about the small explosions. "But we're going to need something bigger in case we're against veterans."

"Yes, I know. Thankfully, they were kind enough to give me several magic textbooks on powerful magic. These seem to be forbidden, even for students." Nodoka said passing a book to each of them. They seemed pretty convinced that it was forbidden from magic schools.

"How do they expect you to learn all these in just four days? That would be a little too fast, even for a graduate mage." Hina commented while reading a book containing Earth spells.

"Agreed." Boris commented reading one with Air spells. "These are not something you would be able to learn so fast."

"Well, I won't be able to get it all, but I did take some time memorizing a few high level spells that my master has mastered a long time ago." Nodoka said holding a Lightning book. "He is quite powerful for his own age."

"Still" Hina said closing the book she was holding. "Having a lot of spells is good, but it wouldn't hurt with having fighting capabilities too. Do you have any of that?"

Nodoka froze after that. She didn't have any experience when it came to fighting on your own. She always had someone fighting it for her, like Negi-sensei or Kotarou-kun.

"I…" She began slowly and stammering. "…don't know any martial arts." She finished rather weakly for the two of them. Hina and Boris stared first at her, then at each other, and finally back at her.

"It's okay. We can teach you." Hina started first. "I can show you how to use weapons rather quickly."

"And I can show you the basics of several fighting styles." Boris finished for her. "But for now, you should learn as many spells as you can for today. We can begin your fighting training tomorrow." Boris stood up and walked out the door. Hina stayed behind for Nodoka to help study the spells for the rest of the day.

(1) **Masamune was historically a Japanese swordsmith during the time of the Mongol invasion of Japan. His work is some of the most exquisite in the world. Today he is considered the greatest Master Swordsmith in the world. According to the manga Hinagiku is from, this sword was one of few Bokkens Masamune actually made, but there is no proof of such things.**

**

* * *

Day 2**

"Okay, look closely." Hina instructed Nodoka as Hina and Boris faced one another. "Weapons are an important part of the human's way of fighting. Some people just feel comfortable with a sword under their pillow."

"Do you sleep with that underneath your pillow?" Nodoka just had to ask her that. Hina didn't answer that immediately, but repositioned herself against Boris. _You do sleep with Masamune _stated Nodoka in her mind. She could have sworn she heard the guards watching this training laughing.

"Anyway, you can't just rely on the weapon's power. You got to see it as part of your own body!" Hina shouted as she launched herself against Boris, who caught Masamune with his hands. However, he wasn't fast enough to notice that Hina had landed on the floor and gave a kick to his leg, making him lose balance. From there, she proceeded by withdrawing Masamune from Boris' clutches and then swings it around against his temple, ending the sparring.

"There. Simple as that." Hina finished, receiving Nodoka's applause. Boris cracked his neck and took over the training from there.

"My turn. I can show you how Jujutsu works." He stated calmly. "Hinagiku-san, I entrust you to follow my instructions on this."

"Huh?"

"You'll be using Jujutsu on me. Understood?"

"Ah, yes." Hina said, leaving Masamune to the side.

"First of all," Boris stated for Nodoka to watch closely. "There is an incorrect method when facing someone larger than you." Boris began by taking Hina's hands and pressed her backwards. "You must not face him head on. You will only get pushed back by their raw power."

He then stopped pressing Hina back, and stepped back a few steps. "Now, the correct method is to step forward beside his first attack." Boris made a slow attack against Hina, who took a right to the punch. "When they are thrusting their body forwards, this is the right thing to do, thus securing the opponent's four attack corners, apart from stepping." He then told Hina to punch him in the temple. "Most forms of Jujutsu start by getting the first strike." Upon signal, Hina had delivered a gentle punch to him. "The striking distracts your opponent's concentration and stance, working as a trap." He then made another slow punch against Hina, stopping it just in front of her face. "When the opponent strikes, before he has a chance to pick up speed, step forward half a step, scattering his strength, making the strike useless. Put simply, you grab him by the wrist and pull it past your own face." When Boris' hand came alive again, Hina took it and pulled past her own face. "Then, you throw your opponent by pulling the arm in the direction you're facing." Hearing this, Hina did her best to do so, but Boris was too heavy for her to throw. "Good." He said, making her let go. "Now you can give it a try, Nodoka."

"Okay." Nodoka taking a stance against Hina, who had picked up Masamune. "Is this okay, Boris-san?"

"It's fine. Jujutsu has techniques for swords too, so this should be fine." Boris stated.

It went fairly well for Nodoka. She avoided the first attack by Hina, and then landed a soft blow on her temple. When Hina made a horizontal attack against her, Nodoka had to step back to avoid getting hit. As Hina made another frontal attack, Nodoka managed to grab her right arm, since both Hina's arms handled Masamune, and then threw her. They must be of similar weight, since Hina flew a bit. "Good work!" Boris praised his student of fighting. "Now let's try something simple."

This time, Boris faced Nodoka. He raced his fists together and firmed them, making them locked in his position. "This is a technique from Karate. It is called Meotoude."

Both Hina and Nodoka were as silent as they come. "Um… You do know what it means, do you?" Hina asked him, since 'Meotoude' actually means 'Married Couple Hands'.

"Yes, I know the name is odd." Boris answered. "But it fulfils the same principle. Meotoude is a way of moving your fists at the same time without separating them."

Nodoka imitated his stance, and found it to be very difficult to use. "The frontal hand is mainly used for defence." Boris continued while Nodoka nodded to learn it all. "It is also used for attack. Use also the back hand for defence and attack. If the opponent manages to get past your front hand, the back hand is your surprise attack. It's essentially a un-thought-of ambush to the enemy. In less than a second after the enemy's front hand has been used, the back hand suddenly appears. And they'll end up coughing blood."

Nodoka took it all in. These techniques were all difficult to use, but it was said that in real battle, minutes of actual combat were the equivalent of days of training. She had observed this through Negi. If he could pull it off, so could she. Only, how much time would it take?

**

* * *

Day 3**

This time, Nodoka was alone in her room today. Boris needed to prepare himself for battle, as well as check his own equipment and Hina needed to be alone for a while. The mage of the whole group on the other hand, took some time to read and recuperate. Now, how did Negi-sensei manage to set his magic arrows in his hands, again?

The door opened for a guard to come into her room, carrying a folder, made in human design for that matter. Nodoka jumped at his presence, as well as appearance. "You requested to see the battle designs." He stated bluntly.

Nodoka stopped for a little while. She had requested to see the battle layout? She didn't do such a thing. But…

"Uh, yes." She took the folder and the guard left the room. The phone rang for her to pick up. "Hello?"

"_Since when did you request the battle __plans?" _Frank's voice asked her through the phone, and Nodoka remembered that he was watching their rooms with cameras.

"I didn't. That's why I was going to ask you if it is fine." Nodoka asked back at him.

"_Of course. It is completely legal to ask for the __details before a battle. It's just that nobody else knew about it. Plus, everyone would think that it's cheating."_

"So why are they at my desk right now?"

"_I have absolutely no idea. Somebody must've sent you them.__ I'll check it up. In the meantime, when someone gives you lemons, what do you do?"_

That was a very easy riddle for someone like Nodoka. "You make lemonade."

**

* * *

Day 4**

"Itadakimasu." Both Hina and Nodoka said as they began dinner. The whole day for both of them, apart from the rest, was relaxation. When inquired about it, they said that in order to be at the best physical shape before a battle, one was to be completely relaxed, instead of being tensed up. If humans didn't relax after training, then they would be worn out very quickly in a fight. Makes a lot of sense, if you were to ask an expert fighter. It had also given Nodoka some time to practice her healing abilities, the small stuff she had learned from Konoka's example.

"Well, tomorrow it happens." Thomas said first after eating the nice roast beef they had been served. The meal in question, consisted of roast beef, potato and béarnaise sauce, with cold milk to settle. No alcohol. "Everybody ready?"

"We can at least survive tomorrow, if that's what you're wondering." Hina answered him. Through chatting, Nodoka had learned everybody's name. There were a total of seven, Thomas Randall, the professional underground boxer from USA, Boris Ivanov, apparently a SAMBO fighter from Russia, Hina, her fellow Japanese girl, Ares, from Greece, practitioner of Pankration, he told everyone, a former sniper from Britain under the name of Bruce and Kahlan, a young Thai boy who was learning Muay Thai after watching a master of it from somewhere in Thailand. It was surprising to see that how closely they were linked, despite the areas they were from. The only one who couldn't speak was Kahlan, but he was learning at least.

"Somebody gave me details for the battle tomorrow." Nodoka spoke up suddenly from eating. This caught the attention of them all.

"How did you get them?" Hina asked her new friend.

"That's the weird thing. The guard who delivered them said that I asked for them." Nodoka responded. They kinda eyed her with suspicion.

"Is that even okay to do?" Boris asked out of curiosity, sitting opposite to her.

"Apparently so. I got a call from the surveillance officer and he said that it is completely legal to ask for it."

Boris widened his eyes at the idea. "Guess its fine then. What do they say?"

Nodoka pulled out the folder that she brought with her to the dining table. "It was written in Latin this time. I learned that it was going to be an 'Assault and Destroy' skirmish."

"And what's that?" Ares asked in his deep Doric Greek accent.

This time, Bruce spoke up. "'Assault and Destroy' is a practice mission for military personnel. Two teams face off against each other with a fort or bunker each. The main goal is to destroy the enemy bunker before they blow up yours. Both teams are equipped with explosives and will attempt to halt the opposing team from reaching their bunker whilst trying the same to them. The team who blows up the enemy bunker is the winner."

"So if we plant a bomb in the enemy bunker then it's our win, right?" Thomas asked. Apparently, he has never been in the army.

"That's correct." Bruce answered him.

"So." Boris said after reading the folder and handing it back to Nodoka. "We need to have a balance between defence, assault and field for this skirmish. Who is good at what?"

"I am a former sniper, and they gave me a sniper rifle with bullets, so I can suppress their advance. That makes me a defensive player." Bruce stated.

"I can move myself very quickly on open field, so I'm up for the field." Thomas said.

"I'm in for field too." Hina stated to. For those who are curious, she is sitting next to Nodoka.

"As for assault… I think Nodoka could be a good choice for an attack." Boris said, making the mentioned mage jump.

"Me as assault…What are you thinking, Boris-san!?"

"It's simple. I've seen you ride that broom they brought in for you. You can get to the enemy bunker with no problems." Boris made his argument.

"In case you've forgotten, that's too obvious." Nodoka countered. "The moment I take to the sky, I'm target practice."

Boris couldn't argue with that. If she did go flying then she would be in trouble. But then, he thought of something.

"That book of yours allows you to read minds. Can it be used for combat purposes?" He asked the shy little mage, who gathered herself for a while first.

"Well yes, I can use to figure out what the enemy could do… but there is a catch. I need to know the names of our opponents. Fortunately, I found a way past that problem." Nodoka showed the Daemonia Comptina to the others. "This ring allows me to find out my opponent's name, if I ask them for it. Even if they were to tell me the name they're using, I get the real name."

"That's still leaves the problem of getting their name." Boris said, scratching his chin. "What do you intend to do, ask them directly for their name?"

Nodoka thought about that one for a moment. "That's what I usually do. I could just make up a lie that it's tradition for magi back home on Earth to state their names before entering battle."

Boris stared with what she thought to be disbelief, since he did not change his facial expression at all. After a while, he nodded to the idea. "That could work."'

"What are you thinking?" Hina asked the Russian.

"Simple. Nodoka could use her mind reading to find out what the enemy will do. If she can find out their names…"

"Then she can use it to relay our own tactics. Genius." Bruce finished for the Russian fighter. "You used to have a master, didn't you? What was his name?"

"He was Colonel Alexander Gaidar, the strongest SAMBO user in Russia. I was his best disciple." Boris answered him.

Bruce seemed a bit shocked to hear this piece of news, but he kept his mouth shut. He merely nodded. "Now, then… What should little Kahlan do tomorrow?" He pondered looking at the little Thai boy. Kahlan, who couldn't speak English properly, reacted at his name.

"Oh, I could take care of that." Nodoka said. Apparently she had something in store for the little boy. "Now for the field itself…"

"What do you mean?" Ares wondered about that.

"When we were informed about the battle, they said we had the right to choose the battlefield." Bruce remembered from four days ago. "Meaning we can put the field to our advantage."

"Or disadvantage." Boris argued. "They could be familiar with the terrain we choose. So we need to choose carefully."

They spent the rest of the evening until bedtime discussing what terrain they should have.

**

* * *

D-day**

In just fifteen minutes, the skirmish would start. Nodoka and Kahlan prepared their battle gear which had been provided by their hosts. Kahlan had been in Nodoka's room tonight and his goods had been moved to that room for him to put on. Nodoka had first her underwear underneath it all, and then there was the hidden breastplate underneath the dougi, and finally the mage cloak that had been put together with her clothes. Kahlan had wrappings around his fists, a small harness to fit his upper body, and finally battle boots. Once done, they both proceeded to exit the door. Nodoka had a broom in her left hand and her wand in her other.

The others were gathered at the door as well. Everyone was dressed in battle gear, Bruce the only one who didn't have any military uniform, but he had a short barrelled rifle with scope and the weight seemed to be at the shoulder.

"Finally. What took you so long?" Hina dressed in Samurai armor asked Nodoka as the last two approached.

"Sorry, not used to waking up so early in the morning." Nodoka responded.

"Any changes to your equipment, miss Nodoka?" Bruce asked her.

"Apart from the broom, nothing." Nodoka responded to the sniper.

"They installed a breastplate in my uniform." Boris stated.

"I got a full battle suit." Thomas said, wearing a full suit of armor resembling a hoplite from Ancient Greece.

"But let's ignore that for now. We're going out today. Does everyone know their places?" Bruce asked the whole group, who nodded in return. "Miss Nodoka, does Kahlan know his-"

"Yes, but for his position, I'm going to need help from Boris-san." Nodoka said, catching Boris' attention on that one. Let's just say he was carrying a big backpack…

* * *

The arena was huge. It resembled a mountainous area with trees, much like what the Anatolian regions look like. The bunkers were on opposite end of the place. They had three levels on the outside, the first level the entrance of course, with the other two levels as lookout posts. Several pillars of rock covered the whole arena, with turns and slopes everywhere, geographically speaking, it was a maze.

Everyone assembled behind their bunker, seeing as rows of aliens cheered on the appearance of the new arrivals. Few aliens were alike and most were humanoid. Some resembled spider men with four arms, while others seemed like bishounen and bishoujou people. But most seemed to be built with highly muscular bodies, and having either green skin or scales along with tails. A big balcony in the middle of the railings held the race of the guards, most male with one female sitting lazily on her seat. She was of beautiful appearance, with crimson red hair and clad in a military uniform, apparently. But beautiful appearances are ruined instantly if you look at their faces and they appear mad or evil, and oh yes, she must be both.

The lights went dark and spotlights twirled everywhere.

"**Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!"** A strong cheerful tone, possibly an entertainer sounded throughout the arena. **"Warriors from every corner of the galaxy and beyond! Tonight, we see something special, namely the appearance of a new species!" **The cheers over sounded his own voice. **"They are from an isolated planet, having no contact with other planets, whatsoever. Isn't that sad? Good fighters, I give you, one of the galaxy's hidden warrior races, the HUMANS!"**

Four spotlights turned to the group at the bunker, the cheers going almost as loud as they get, seeing the humans. Only, moments later, it suddenly turned to booing.

"**Appearances don't tell everything, you ingrates. These humans are pure killers, having shown little mercy to their foes with extremity and effectiveness!" **The booing did not stop, only tuning down, slightly. **"Well, if you must be like that, then let me present their opponents then!" **Spotlights turned to a group of five humanoids. There was a dark figure clad in a cloak as black as pits, with what seemed like a boiling spot as a head, glowing blue in dark. Another was a stunningly gorgeous woman with pale grey skin, and red hair. Apart from having a body that men would kill just to touch once, she was clad in elegant clothing that only covered her, ahem, parts and carried a large sword in her right hand. Others seemed to be none alike, one a furry humanoid, resembling a human tiger. This time, cheers roared yet again.

Boris nodded for Nodoka to find out their names. She jumped up on the broom she had and flew over to the opponents. **"What's this? Some declaration before we commence? Or maybe some final words even?" **The announcer said as Nodoka flew over to the opposing side that was making no reaction when she drew close.

"Sorry for disturbing you, but on our home world, it is tradition for mages to introduce themselves before fighting each other." She said calmly, despite the fact that the appearance of the dark figure was freaking her out.

"Is it, now?" Mentioned figure said. "Well, rules say we have to respect traditions, guess we have no choice in the matter." He stretched his arms out. "I am Demongo, warlock demon from the Pit of Hate. Was that enough for you?"

"Yes, it was." Nodoka responded, the Comptina Daemonia responding by confirming that it was his real name. "I am Nodoka Miyazaki, apprentice mage from Mahora Gakuen." She said, earning a small chuckle from Demongo. The woman next to him stepped forward to her as well.

"I am Iyanna. I hope that will do for you for now." She stated sternly. Nodoka merely nodded and flew back. Her demon ring confirmed that Iyanna was her real name.

"**Introductions, how nice. But rules do say that traditions will be respected, no matter where they come from. With that settled, let me explain the rules!" **The announcer shouted into his microphone, the cheers went on. As they died, he continued. **"The objective is to put the explosives in the cellar of the bunker and activate them. You have to protect your own bunker while trying to reach your opponent's. Killing is prohibited. Are you ready!" **The cheers went louder and louder as the humans went for their starting positions, as well as the aliens. **"Combatants, begin!"**

Hina, Boris and Thomas rushed forward, the middle carrying the large backpack all the time, but that did not slow him down. Bruce rushed into the bunker to get to the top. Nodoka stayed in her position to chant her first spell.

« Practe Bigi Nar, quinquaginta septem spiritus Lucis, cacugent Sagitent Inimicum, Sagitta Magicka seires Lucis ! » The barrage was heavy and covered the others' advance. It also startled the enemy rushing towards them. But it brought a grin to Demongo.

_So many missiles from an apprentice? I'm going to enjoy this fight, since I've just taken an interest in her essence…_

Nodoka jumped up to the roof of the bunker's second level, keeping an eye on the rest of her team. "That was pretty amazing with the barrage." Bruce commented, having reached the top with his rifle and probably saw it.

"Thank you, but I can't afford such an attack again. I need to get to the bunker fast. For that I need as much energy as possible." She responded to the sniper.

"I guess you're right – Hup!" Bruce sprung to action and shot a humanoid that fell down. "Rubber bullets. I figured as such since they gave me a rifle and still saying that killing is prohibited."

"You kind of remind me of someone I know." Nodoka said.

"Who?"

"A classmate of mine. She's in the Biathlon club, but she is deadly scary with guns." Nodoka said slightly disrupting Bruce's attention to the other incomer. Luckily, Nodoka brought him or her down with a unincantated arrow. "Sorry, did I disturb you?"

"Just get over there ASAP." Bruce said, adjusting his aim. "And get your artefact out."

"Oh right." Nodoka summoned her book and focused on Demongo and Iyanna, making the book split in two. Demongo stood still, so he was definitely defence. Iyanna on the other was up against Thomas, and she had the upper hand against the boxer. Through her book, she could see that Iyanna was more dancing than fighting. But it was possibly her own martial arts, resembling that of angels back on Earth. Boris was having it easy against his opponents, which was two to one for his part. Hina was free, eyeing for any help she could lend for the moment.

_Chance! _Nodoka thought as Boris was in the right position, on high ground and removed his backpack for more mobility, but kept it with his left hand and fended off the opposition with his free hand and foot. She flew at full speed towards him, stretching out her hand. "Boris-san!" That caught his attention.

"Ready!" He shouted back at her, but failed to notice that his opponents had grabbed his foot and began to pull him down. Having little time to think, he threw up the backpack for her to catch. At first it looked like she was going to miss it, but with some leaning, she got it. Good, now he could beat the crap out of his two opponents.

Nodoka flew towards the enemy bunker; Demongo was still there, still grinning. As she approached, Demongo raised a hand and lashed out a dark bolt of lightning. Within seconds, without hesitation and to her own surprise, Nodoka had dodged the lightning bolt and continued on a crash course for the ground. To ensure safety, she threw the backpack away, which in turn flew past Demongo and at the entrance to the bunker.

"I'm impressed, little girl." Demongo taunted the mage as she climbed to her feet a few away from him. "I didn't expect such a barrage from the start. You've become interesting in my eyes."

Nodoka said nothing at first, so he continued. "But since I'm in your way and the explosives haven't been activated… Let's have a fight." He stretched out his arms, revealing a cuirass made of skulls collected from his foes. "You choose."

Now the advantage was in Nodoka's favour. She took a fighting stance instead of reaching for her wand. "Come on, then." She wasn't going to run away this time. There was no Negi-sensei, no Kotarou-kun, no Asuna-san or Setsuna-san this time to fight her battles or help her escape. But she knew one thing for certain about Demongo: he was no Fate Averruncus or Evangeline.

"Going for the weak side of magi, huh?" Demongo taunted her (Nodoka didn't flinch at that) and took a battle stance as well. "Fine by me." He then charged at her laughing like crazy. Unbeknownst to him, someone small had crawled out of the backpack.

_What to do now? _Nodoka thought as Demongo charged against her when a voice in her head said; _"When the opponent approaches, jump up and use your knee to attack his head!" _Strangely, that's what she did. Those fighting sessions with Boris and Hina had paid off. Demongo was stunned initially by the attack, surprised that she had actually kicked him. He jumped back, trying to grin.

"Ouch, that did hurt. Not bad, Miyazaki Nodoka. But doing something for fighters, that's not what we magi are capable of initially."

"Back home, fighting is not restricted to fighters." Nodoka responded back at him. Now, she reached for her wand and held it in her left hand. Demongo laughed at it.

"I guess I was expecting too much for an apprentice! What's next, fairy dust!?" He fired yet another bolt of dark lightning, which Nodoka managed just in time to dodge. Had it not been for the mind reading book she had left with Bruce, since she didn't need to carry it, she would have been hit and damaged severely. "Okay, you're fast, I'll give you that."

Nodoka decided to close the distance instead of listen to his rambling, and chose to use the Meotoude technique. "How about this, then?" She asked delivered the first attack against him which he blocked and then hit him in the face yet again with her second fist. Demongo couldn't get an appropriate defence from this. He had one shot; namely put his hand on Nodoka's chest and release a lightning bolt.

Said girl was in massive amount of pain. No wonder she had to dodge them. She flew back from the blast and landed roughly. The cheers roared as Demongo waved his arms to them as a means to prove that he was the best. "What does an apprentice have against that kind of power, huh!? What can you do!?" He shouted at her. He failed to notice that she was still conscious.

"**Aw, is it over for the cute little magic girl? Was that too much for the human magic?"**

« Practe Bigi Nar, Une Fulgor Concidens Noctum, In Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Eyat » was a soft whisper from her side, catching Demongo's attention.

"What's that you say?"

"Fulguratio Albicans!" Nodoka screamed pointing her wand at him, and her white lightning shot directly at him scoring a hit at him, causing uproar from the audience. The announcer sounded shocked as well.

"**It's a come-back! What a powerful spell! I could feel it all the way here. Way to go, human!" **Now the audience was cheering her on. This time she charged on, glowing strongly having activated the magic from the card that Negi could in case they needed it. She was swifter, stronger than before and adding the training from Boris and Hina, (who was watching her for that matter) she was the most powerful opponent Demongo had met. But she stopped suddenly from pummelling him, as Kahlan came rushing towards her screaming "Apapapapapa!" whilst carrying Boris' backpack.

"WHAT!" Demongo screamed at the sight of the young boy! "You tricked me, you little-" he didn't finish that as Nodoka punched him in face for using such bad language.

"Those who wage war never grow tired of deception." Nodoka responded as she let go and grabbed Kahlan, her broom and flew away from Demongo as far as possible back to their bunker. Demongo ran also away from his bunker and as he jumped into cover, the bunker he was supposed to guard blew up in a firestorm.

"**There it is, folks! The humans have won this battle! Using effectiveness, deception and power, the humans are a proud warrior race, let's give them a cheer!" **Now the roars of the audience drowned every other noise. Everyone in the arena stopped what they were doing and everybody from the human team came to cheer Nodoka as she and Kahlan landed near their bunker. Out of exhaustion, Nodoka collapsed on Kahlan, who whined at the weight before Hina lifted up the librarian mage.

"I'm fine, just a little spent on energy." Was all she said to them. They all nodded to her, acknowledging that magic was something to be counted with.

_

* * *

Assumed to be evening…_

Hina yawned as they proceeded to their new rooms. Apparently the rooms they lived in before the skirmish was generally living quarters for new arrivals. Hina was carrying the exhausted but awake Nodoka with Boris next to them. Everybody had received notes of where they would be living. Hina was a bit overjoyed when she found that she and Nodoka would live in the same room, to which Nodoka gave faint thumbs up.

"Man, I'm tired." Hina said as they approached the living quarters. Ares and Bruce found their rooms and Kahlan had been escorted by one of the guards to his room. Who would have thought that there were space dwarves too? Thomas found his room and discovered that he lived together with some weird humanoid with green skin. And he wasn't brawny or muscular for that matter.

"We all are." Boris said walking as sternly as he could, despite being so tired himself. "It's only natural. I've never asked for anything before in my training, but right now, I could use a nice bath and some food before going to sleep."

"Funny." Nodoka said finally. "I was thinking the same."

Boris found his room and found a scaly humanoid with a tail waiting for him inside. "I'll see you tomorrow. The guards talked about some check up." He entered his quarters and asked where the bath was.

Eventually, Hina and Nodoka found their room. When they opened it, they found Iyanna inside. "Hey, you two! What took you so long?" Both humans were stunned by her presence.

"What are you doing here, Iyanna-san?" Nodoka asked weakly.

"Why, I live here too. We're roommates now." Iyanna responded gladly. Before both could say anything, she told them. "And I'm only all that cold when I fight. I'm actually quite nice."

"Uh, right. Good thing we're not going to fight you anymore." Hina said with a smile

"Why, do you want to go again?"

The humans shake their heads at that question. Iyanna merely laughed at their animation inside their heads. "Just kidding. Come on, I made dinner and you're going to help me eat all of it."

**

* * *

A/N: Nice, huh? ****My fingers are on strike now, so it will probably take a little while before I can continue with this.**

**Oh, and I've decided. I will reboot the Gaelic Hunter, delete it, and do my best not to make it an OC story. Expect more action and focus on Negi and the girls in it. Sorry for those who read it, if there are any.**


	9. Sorry, no catchy title name this time

**A/N: Right, its official, the magic world arc in the manga will be animated. Therefore, it has been confirmed that Fate's eyes will be blue. For me it's grand at least, I happen to like the bastard.**

**Now for something irrelevant: is anybody actually reading this story, because I get so few reviews and the only one who comes back is The Ansem Man!? Okay, I know that people don't always like multicrossovers, but more reviews would be more appreciated. Finally, eventually, I'll get around writing down a list of things derived from other places that appear in this story that I don't own.**

* * *

"Listen up, Earthlings!" The angry alien woman who watched them fight yesterday instructed all the humans who were inside the building. They had been called to listen to the rules that were here. "You are permitted only to walk within this facility. You will not complain. You will not step outside. Fights with inmates are allowed, but the loser will receive punishment for causing trouble. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Everybody responded simultaneously. The woman was taken aback a little by their response as being at once and at the same time.

"Well, you should be able to handle yourselves. Yesterday's battle proved that much at least. You humans are one of the creams of this facility now, so make a good example and follow the rules!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Everybody responded yet again. A clapping could be heard above them; making most of them actually blink in surprise. Looking up, they saw another alien, this one a male clad in stylish clothing made of what seemed to be silk and had an eye patch made of silver with three gems. He was smiling as he observed them.

"Wonderful." He actually jumped down from there as he said those words, before floating gently down just before landing. "These humans are going to be very interesting, don't you think so too, Cireka?" He asked the woman in uniform behind him, making her jump.

"Sir, I understand that you are proud of these xenos, but why would you pick such a barbaric race in the first place?" Cireka, apparently the woman, asked him in their own native tongue (1).

"You speak of them as if we were never barbaric, Cireka. I've told you to be more open with other Githoids (2)." The elegantly clad man scolded, to which she only nodded. He then turned to the humans. "Sorry about that, Cireka is still suspicious about xenos such as you. I hope you didn't take ill of what she said." He told them as if they understood what they had said to each other.

"With all due respect, good sir, we didn't understand a thing." Hina responded to him. "Moreover, who are you?"

"Eh? You don't know?" The man seriously asked in surprise, honestly. (**Okay, in the manga that Boris Ivanov is from, there is a metaphor that small animals will pass by in their minds as a bunny, monkey or frog. For now, imagine a bunny passing by)** "Ah, sorry, now I remember. I didn't tell anyone my name, except for that magic princess back on Earth. My name is Fashtar and I'm the one who requested your presence here on Tu'narath." That answer stunned them all. Within moments, Boris' hands were around Fashtar's neck, to which several guards raised their arms against him, and the humans backed away from the inevitable firing. "Whoa, whoa there, Boris. It's a very stupid thing you are doing right now. Are you sure you thought this through?"

"Even if I die, then at least I'm taking you with me." Boris responded with eyes that showed that he was ready for death, no matter what.

"Do you want to see him again?" Fashtar asked him gently after some thinking. "Do you want to see your master again?" That question made Boris hesitate. "I can find out where he is. Hell, I could bring him here."

Boris eased on his hands around Fashtar's neck, but didn't let go. "You can bring Alexander Gaidar here?" Bruce for that matter frowned upon hearing the name.

"Yes. I can bring Alexander Gaidar here. But I can't do it if you break my neck." Fashtar responded gently, holding up a hand for the guards just in case. Slowly, Boris let go of the neck, allowing the gentleman to breathe normally. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it? Now, you can all relax. See this place as your new home and have fun with your fellow inmates. There have been no casualties here for as long as I've been in charge here, so you can be relieved. And by the way, please, don't go kill anyone. It involves a lot of paperwork for me and I tend to dislike paperwork, okay?"

Everybody sweats a drop in response. "Right."

"Right. If you don't have any other questions, then go run along." Fashtar said, before responding the moment Bruce raised his hand. "Yes?"

"How long do you intend on keeping us?" the former sniper asked the alien.

"That, depends on how much we can learn from you. It won't be long, just a couple of weeks. Unless you have something hidden, then it would be a few months."

"And once you've learned what you want, you let us go?"

"Of course! I may be many things, but a liar, I'm not!" That was Fashtar's response. Bruce merely nodded at him and turned to the door behind them. The other humans followed promptly. Nodoka spared one look at Fashtar before she left the room. He was smiling gently at her.

"_Relax, little girl. You get to see Negi-kun again." _His voice was heard in her mind, but before she could respond, he merely gestured with his hand that she should get going. Nodoka did so.

**1. These aliens are psionically gifted, meaning they are able to speak telepathically to others. In the event that they meet a species incapable of understanding their own language, which would happen most of the time, they send the content of what they speak into the other side's mind, making it seem like that they speak the same language. And they pick up the meaning of what aliens speak to them. Hence why the SS were able to talk Japanese to the others back on Earth.**

**2. A play on the word "humanoids", really.**

* * *

Somewhere at lunchtime, everybody had seated themselves among the other races. It was quite amazing how they melted in. Everybody didn't seem to mind the new arrivals, just minded their own business as usual. Of course, the only thing new was trying to get at least one human to sit by their table so they could have a chat. Nodoka, Hina, Boris and Bruce sat by one table together with Iyanna and Straha, the lizard man who was Boris' roommate. The six foot eight tall lizard was apparently one of the big ones around here. As in a, "You mess with him and your intestines will be strung up for dinner" kind of way. He was still quite muscular.

"Hey, who is this Fashtar guy?" Hina asked their two latest friends in the facility.

"Him? Oh, he's the boss of this place. He's quite generous. We get to go wherever we want, we can have fights, official or not, he covers any medical exams and we can have a party if we wanted too." Straha said. "All he asks in return is that we don't go outside the building and we're good."

"So what's with that Cireka woman?" Bruce asked the lizard. "She doesn't seem like very nice."

Iyanna frowned upon hearing Cireka's name, so it was clear what kind of impression Cireka left on people. "She is head of security here. Although she is officially the head, she doesn't care about this place one bit. She just does it because it's her job. Xenophobic psychopath if you ask me."

"You guys hate her?"

"Everybody here does, they just don't show it. Lieutenant Kash, who is second-in-command here, is a lot better. But the only reason Cireka is around, is because she is essentially a general in the Imperial Army here." Iyanna said.

_All four humans drop their drinks._

"She's a military commander?" Boris asked stammering. First time he's been this close to a general, regardless of species.

Straha nodded at his question. "She has a military record that goes through the roof. But she is a real… A word has to be invented to describe her in one go, but if there is such a word, she is it definitely."

"I guess we have to stay out of her way." Nodoka brought to this conversation.

"That's a good start. She does at least respect you guys, since you won against the toughest guys in here. But as soon as your secret's out, she'll be willing to kill every one of you."

Hina and Nodoka shivered at the thought at least. Bruce hummed to himself and Boris didn't flinch at all at the notion.

"But don't worry; you've got time to prepare. And Fashtar keeps Cireka on a very short leash. Besides, you're with us. We're not going to let anything happen to you."

All four seemed relieved in their own way.

"Let's just continue to eat lunch without anything happen to us." Hina suggested for the whole group.

* * *

The next few days were all the same. Due to lack of space, Hina and Nodoka had to sleep together in the same bed (No, NO, they weren't doing anything at all in it! Get your mind out of that place, people). Neither of them _dared_ to be in the same bed as Iyanna. Despite being big-breasted, which most guys wouldn't complain about, there was also the risk of some infection from her. Iyanna had volunteered for a medical exam the next day.

The trio of girls would start their morning by all getting in the shower. Iyanna had proclaimed that from whatever she recalls from her people, sharing a bath or shower was customary. Funny, that's the same thing in Japan. Anyways, after the shower, they would get dressed and then it's off to communal breakfast.

Only, today was a bit different.

In the middle of changing clothes, the three girls, or rather two girls and woman were walked in on by a security guard with black hair compared to the others who usually had red hair. "Okay, ladies, you'd better be prepared for…" He had been looking at a data slate the whole time he walked in, and his voice died off as he looked up from it. Most guys would lose track of what they're saying when granted a vision what they would call heaven. Then it all came crashing down upon him in fury.

_**Wham! Smash! Kick out through the door!**_

"Doesn't anybody in this place know how to knock as well!?" Hina shouted as she closed the door once the guard had been kicked out, literally. This was all too familiar like back home when her sister would walk in on her as well.

"You've been these things before, Hina-chan?" Iyanna asked her new friend. Overnight, she had learned the honorifics of Japan, and since she was older than both of them together, she decided to address Hina with a –chan, and Nodoka without any honorifics. She opened the door to find the guard still sprawled out on the floor, holding his data slate. "Something you wanted, Kash?"

"Two things. First; I didn't know you were changing clothes just then. Second; I came to deliver this." Kash said as he held up his data slate. Iyanna held up her hand and the slate went right into her hand, before she pressed the screen with her delicate fingers.

"Oh? It's today, huh? Thanks, Kash." Iyanna said as she closed the door so the girls could continue changing. "Kash happens to be like that sometimes."

"That was Kash?" Hina jumped at hearing his name, since she had learned that that guy was second-in-command of this place.

"_Don't be alarmed, miss. I've gotten used to that sort of thing years ago." _Kash's voice was heard in her head. Hina turned to Nodoka who nodded since she heard the same thing.

"How come you manage to do that?" Hina asked bluntly and surprised.

"_Do what?"_

"That! Just now, that telepathy stuff?"

"_Ah, that's because we're psychic. We can do various stuff with just our minds. Iyanna is one too."_

Nodoka and Hina flashed their eyes and looked at Iyanna, who was making a nervous smile at them, in an attempt to get out of an explanation. It wasn't going to work at all, she thought to herself.

"Anyways, we got to prepare. It's that today." Iyanna said, waving the data slate around.

"What is?" Hina asked.

"It's a health examination. We have it once a month. Everybody's doing it. It's a good time to chat, have a few laughs, not to mention try out what we've learned in the time between." Iyanna responded.

"Health examination?" Nodoka asked this time. And Kash entered the room, somewhat relieved that the girls were fully dressed.

"It's mainly a check up. Anybody sick, we fix you up. Everyone likes to have a chat while doing to examination. Also, you're expected to show us your skills for comparison and studies."

"Studies?" Hina asked.

"Ah, Fashtar, the guy who owns this place, is a student of Xenology, meaning that he is learning about other species. So that's why we are to show everyone what we've learned in our time here." Iyanna responded to Hina's question.

"So get your gear together and we'll be on our way." Kash said almost immediately after Iyanna had finished talking.

Nodoka and Hina were standing between the two different aliens and looked at each other.

"Get magic your stuff." Hina said first.

"Get Masamune." Nodoka responded immediately. Both girls said "Yosh" at the same time and proceeded to their stuff. Kash and Iyanna looked at each other for a brief second.

"You get your gear." Kash said, breaking the silence.

"You get the fuck out."

"Yosh."

* * *

The whole day was for the examination. The entire building was filled with all kinds of humanoids. Scaly humanoids, green skinned of various types and sizes, giant like humanoid with blue skin, and so forth. It was a miracle that nobody seemed to care about the differences in between. The humans on the other were shocked to see so many various kinds of aliens, or xenos that the guards said. Even though it is a Greek word originally. There was no exception to them, not even Boris who, known for being cool headed and fearless, had promptly dropped his jaw at the sight.

"So many of them…" Ares, who was apparently left out of the fight due to stomach ache, pointed out.

"How are we going to stand a chance against these guys?" Hina asked shocked, eyeing the big blue-skinned giants. The last thing she wanted to ended up like was as flat as the front cover of a big book. We all know how flat those are.

"What's with you humans, you're all stiff." Straha said, walking up to them, wearing dark blue pants and bare-chested, revealing a pearl white torso along with the rest of his well muscular body covered in scars, in grey scales. Iyanna came with him, wearing what could be passed as a training bra.

"We're not going to battle, guys." She said. "This is why we told you guys to leave the armor."

"What is it we're supposed to do right now?" Bruce asked the two aliens. To be more on detail, he averted his eyes from Iyanna since she was well endowed, and he, well, was a guy. Well, you know.

"Right now? Just a physical examination." Straha said. "And we're not allowed to use anything like magic and that sort of stuff to help. Just our bodies."

Boris made observations and noticed that the guards were watching from railings close to the roof. No one had guns, but they each kept what seemed like a long, leaf inspired straight sword at their hips. There were others with them, holding data slates, pens and wore white robes, similar to what Nodoka wore. Maybe they copied the design. The hoods were down.

"What are we going to do, right now?" he wondered.

"You see that mitt pad over there on the machine?" Iyanna pointed to the right of their group. "We're going to punch it as hard as we can. Ah! It's our turn." She motioned for all of them to follow.

"We're a group? I thought we were separated by species?" Hina asked gently and innocently.

"Nope. We can register as groups regardless of species. 'Sides, you need to be more open. Just what kind of planet do you live on?"

_Few of them who knew that term stopped up a little, knowing fully the irony of that saying._

The examination went quite well for them. Hina, Kahlan and Nodoka were the weakest in pure strength so their points when punching the mitt pad, so their points were relatively low. Boris on the other had next to Straha the highest points, taking them by surprise. Following the mitt hitting, endurance training followed by strength training took part. Nodoka was definitely the least physical of the group, even Kahlan was better. Then again, the file said that he was practicing Muay Thai, the kick-boxing fighting style of Thailand, so it was not surprising. Boris had the highest points. He must've been through some kind of hellfire training and it seemed to be connected to this Alexander Gaidar person. Just what kind of person was he? (3)

**3 Okay, it's a challenge. Boris Ivanov and Gaidar are from another manga. I want you to find out which one and read it properly so you'll understand the crossover completely. Furthermore on that note, I do not own it, otherwise this would be a manga, not a fanfiction story.**

* * *

Some time later, after the physical exam, it was time for the examination of skill. Fighters and magi were divided into two sections. Of course, psychics had their own section as well. So that meant that Nodoka was alone with four other magic users. Demongo counted in, as well as a dark skinned humanoid with lavender eyes and pointed ears like arrow tips. Third among them was best described as… short. He had a big nose, just four fingers on his hands and had dark pupils. It was probably due to the dark lighting that he could see properly. Otherwise, he would be blind. The fourth one was, well, quite the contrast. She was huge, one of those blue skinned giants that they saw earlier. She was clad quite elegant, in a white dress with fur linings of some white furred animal and bore golden rings on her fingers.

"**Okay, guys, we have a new face this time, so be nice to her, okay?" **A voice could be heard from the speakers at the roof. There was a booth which seated one of the scientists, probably by a control panel and analysis computers. **"Okay, there are special targets straight ahead of you; the goal right now is to use your basic offensive spell on it."**

Everyone charged something. The giant and the dark skinned humanoid fired small silver streams against their targets. Demongo fired off a black missile against his target, giving a smirk to Nodoka. Oh, no. She is not going to back out of this one. She fired off a single arrow of light towards her target, which cracked severely by the impact.

Up in the booth, the scientist was joined by another one.

"How are things going here, Duuth?" She asks as she enters the booth, making him turn his attention.

"Just fine, Iliss. No signs of abnormalities from any one of them." He responded to her.

"What about the newcomer?"

"The human? She's doing fine so far." He turned back to the control and activated the speakers. "Now, try a mid level combat spell, and then it's on to defensive spells." Then he turned back to Iliss. "Now, if she can pull off what we saw in the fight, we may have another style of magic to train our magi in. The only drawback she has is that her wand is easy to lose."

"Found any way around that yet?" Iliss asks, observing the magi firing off bolts of lightning and ice and fire. Then they got mostly bombarded by rubber balls. All of them managed in time to raise their shields. After about two minutes, the firing of balls stopped.

"Xamvadim system has developed a new batch of rings and necklaces as catalysts for spell-casting. We could look into that." Duuth responded to her, who nodded in return. He turned back to the panel.

Outside the booth…

"**Final test, everyone; fire off the strongest spell you know." **Duuth's voice was heard in the speakers above them. Now everyone began chanting in whatever language they were taught in. The blasts were huge, making vast cracks in the targets, if not breaking them completely. Nodoka was the only one who did not fire simultaneously as the others. **"Something wrong?" **That question was obviously directed at her.

"Ah, no there isn't…" Nodoka said, trying in her head to figure out what was her strongest spell. Okay, she had practiced mid-level battle spells back home on Earth and strengthening her basic spells, but she hadn't really given a go at the _really _powerful spells. Best one she knew in theory was still _Jupiter's Thunderstorm_.

"**Ah, you're a bit nervous. That's fine; everyone here's been through that."** Duuth said making most of them blush at notion, remembering their first times in this room. **"Go ahead; no one will laugh at you."**

"Okay." Nodoka turned to the target that was virtually untouched, and picked up her wand.

« Practe Bigi Nar, Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes, Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina, Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens ! »

* * *

"You made a hole in the wall!?" Hina asked really surprised upon hearing the news in the magic chamber. Iyanna was having stomach pains because of the laughing fits she was having right now.

"I didn't mean too, really! They told me to cast the strongest spell I had, and it was my first time casting it, I had no idea it would be that strong!" Nodoka said waving her arms around with teary eyes as if she did something REALLY bad. Like that time when Haruna had locked her and Negi together in the library so they wouldn't be disturbed. Seriously, who makes a love potion mixed with aphrodisiacs having complete knowledge about the consequences, anyway? I mean, who?

"I _so_ didn't need to know that." Iyanna said between her fits, trying to stand up, meagrely.

"Know what?" Hina asked her.

"Nodoka was thinking about a time when she and a guy named Negi was locked in a room together by her friend and had ingested a potion which contained-"

_**Dodge failure! Toughness failure! Disabled! Sprawled out on the floor!**_

Iyanna had definitely failed to notice that Light arrow that had flown and blown up in her face in just 0.4 seconds. Smoke was rising from where her face is, supposedly.

"That embarrassing, huh?" Hina asked her new mage friend that had apparently fired off that arrow, who nodded in silence and blushing furiously. _I just hope she doesn't find out about me having those dreams about Ayasaki-kun…_

"Come on, let's just get to bed and forget about today, okay?" Nodoka said still blushing. Both humans proceeded to lift up their still unconscious and disabled alien roommate and put the very well endowed lady on her bed, before changing their jammies and going to their bed.

Meanwhile, the reparation was a bit curious on the damage of the wall they were standing in front of. They didn't know how to fix this, but they knew one thing for sure.

"We're gonna be rich when we fix this, guys. Let's take our time on this one."

**

* * *

A/N: YES! Finally, I'm done with my school project. Now I can turn my full attention to this story. Just got to pass the biology exam and hopefully pray for the best. I seem to have left out some key parts, but that will be done in the next chapter. Stay tuned and read, very mucho and review, very mucho.**


	10. Final Prisoner chapter

**A/N: Sorry for the late update, but I had to go to my graduation ceremony. It was great, except for all the noise.**

* * *

"I always wondered about one thing, Iyanna-san…" Nodoka asked her friend with plaster around her face as they were dressing for the day.

"Which is?" Iyanna responded whilst putting on her torso outfit which split at the valley between her huge tracts of land.

"What species are you really?"

"Oh…" Iyanna managed to get out a bit surprised at the question. She didn't answer it immediately as she got fully dressed, she just…walked out the door with a very peculiar look on her face. Nodoka and Hina looked out their door watching their friend wander away from them to do something they probably shouldn't do with her.

"Did I say something bad?" Nodoka asked Hina, who merely shrugged.

"You maybe should have waited with that until lunch?" She wondered.

* * *

"Eh? You want to know what species Iyanna is?" Straha just looked at the two girls that had asked him that question when they went up to him.

"Yes, that's right." Hina told him while Nodoka merely nodded.

Straha took a few moments to think about what species Iyanna really was. It took about a minute before he answered back. "Sorry, can't help you two."

_Both girls fell over in the good old Anime-style. Oh look, the bunny is back…_

Nodoka and Hina just looked blankly at the insectoid alien who had made the request of them doing an erotic position with him going to take pictures of them, after hearing them ask him what species Iyanna was. The insect in this case had, like a human, as many legs as he had arms. Only, he had three times as many legs as a human and one pair of his arms did not have any hands, but a pair of curved blades making him capable of making shish kebab of anything. Only problem when greeting him was to decide which right hand you should shake.

"So, you'll do it?"

_**Karate Finishing Strike! Oukahouken Strike! Dodge Failure! Toughness Failure! Wall Toughness Failure! Another hole in the wall! Someone's going to get rich!**_

"Really now, some guys don't know when to quit, do they?" Hina said loudly as the two girls left the big bug smoking with half his body in the hole and twitching.

"Nope." Nodoka responded to her. Back at the insectoid, one of the guards stood next to him.

"You shouldn't have made that request to them."

"I think my exoskeleton cracked…" The insect said weakly trying to get out of the hole. "How come I got smothered like that?"

"You don't have to make business out of everything, you dumb Itherian. Lucky for you, the only reason you haven't been kicked out is because your people's spice trading with us pays half the engineering budget around here." The guard said, watching as the Itherian crawled out of the hole with what limbs he had intact, landing with a loud thud.

"Oh goody. Does any of that go into medical treatment?"

"Let me check the data while we patch you up…"

* * *

"I've lost count of how many species we've asked…" Hina said as she rested her head on the table they were sitting by. "We started wondering about one species and ended with a dozen or so…"

"We've asked 16 different species and not one knew what Iyanna-san is. And we can't use the data files because we don't know the literal language here on Tu'narath." Nodoka said exhausted too. Her head was resting on her arms, opposite of where Hina was lying.

"How about we try figuring it out ourselves? That would have been a lot easier from the start." Hina said turning her head around so she could see the other side of the table.

Nodoka took a deep breath before starting. "She's a humanoid."

"She resembles very beautiful humans, on the highest level." Hina stated also.

"She has pale skin."

"Big boobs."

"That's trivia."

"She is psychic from what Kash-san told us."

"Long red hair."

"Diamond sparkling eyes."

"A ridiculously sharp hour glass figure."

"And you told me that the boobs were trivia."

"It's overall facts that count."

"Good point."

"Just what can she be called?" Nodoka asked the question to herself.

"Excuse me…" A familiar voice called to them. They turned to find the insectoid that had made that awful request for them earlier today.

"Are you looking for another beating?" Hina asked h… it, since there didn't seem to be any indication of the sex.

"Hey, it's not that I'm here for. I've come to help you this time. Really." The bug hindered them waving his sword arms, giving a clear indication that he could slice them to pieces if he wanted to. They did notice that he had also attachments of metal strapped to his body, particularly around his abdomen, which had bandages too. Putting that in mind, they could stand a chance against him, if it hurt for him to move around.

"Really?"

"Yes. And I don't believe I've introduced myself properly. The name is Varn Ithchaal." The Itherian reached his small right hand for one of the two girls to shake. After looking at her friend, Hina took the hand doubtingly. "Just a question."

"Yes?" Varn wondered.

"What was it with those pictures you wanted to take earlier?"

Varn tried to step back for that question, only to wince at the pain. "Ah yes. I happen to be a merchant, the most common profession for the Itherians. Trading is our way and we love profit above all."

"So it was nothing really sexual going on?"

"Nope, we are single sex on Thylaste, our home world. However, you two fit in the category of 'cute', and there's a market for it almost everywhere. I thought that if I could take pictures of you two along with my spice, once I get to leave I would make a lot of money from it." Varn responded calmly.

"And you still want to take those pictures, I presume?" Hina raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, however, I will help you in exchange for a favour later on. Good relations between our people are always good, yes?" Varn said, stretching out his small right hand again. This time Hina took it in confidence.

"Very well. We humans are known for our loyal friendship to others, after all." Oh, famous words of irony, if you ask me…

_**

* * *

Roughly five minutes later, at a computer terminal.**_

"Okay, let's take a look." Varn typed at a speed which reminded Nodoka about Chisame's speed. Then again, he had four usable arms, so it wasn't much of a surprise. The two girls didn't know the markings of the computer terminals around this place (Would you?), mainly due to the fact that they haven't learned the whole alphabet of their hosts. Fortunately for them, Varn was well taught since he had been stuck here for over four years.

"Running a check here, logging on to the databank…Pretty soon…There! We've found the list of species. Here we can track every alien species that has been inside these walls." Varn said proudly as the very large list of creatures from apparently the entire galaxy was being shown in front of them on a large hologrammatic screen.

"So many species…" Nodoka said eyeing the list.

"How are we going to find which one Iyanna-san is?" Hina wondered.

"Simple: We use the search engine." Varn stated, causing an old fashioned anime-style fall over from the two humans. "If we enter the name, Iyanna, was it?" After receiving a nod from them, he entered the name in the engine and this is what they got:

Name: Iyanna

Species: Eldar

Age: 107

Time spent here: 104 years

Home planet:

Fighting Style: Vertoth

Class: Psionic

Weapon of Choice: Sword

Armour Preference: Eldar Farseer

Note: Friendly, caring, motherly to others, fiercely loyal to friends, protective, deadly weapon, do not make angry

"Eldar?" Hina wondered at the species' name.

"That's what she is?" Nodoka stated such a very obviously dumb question. Come to think of it, Iyanna does look like a high-tech elf. _Why didn't we notice that before!?_

"Apparently. It says here that she doesn't have a home world. I wonder why…" Varn stated, scratching his head with his small hand. How come he doesn't use his big hands very often?

"What's Vertoth?" Hina asked. _Fighting style…martial arts, perhaps?_

"Hey, look at her age… 107 years old. That's…that's pretty old, don't you think?" Nodoka noted pointing at the screen.

"And she's been here since she was three? How come she's been here that long?" Hina said noting where the mage was pointing.

"Why don't you go ask her yourselves?" A fourth voice behind them said quite like she was grinning. The three of them recognized the voice and hoped that it wasn't really who they suspected who it was. They turned their heads to find Cireka, head of security over the Institution as it was called. _Oh, crap. _All three of them thought.

"Hey, don't think I'm here because I felt like it, xenos." Cireka stated unpleasantly after picking up their thoughts. "I'm here because of orders. And it is quite appropriate, since I was tasked to find all three of you."

"W-were you, ma'am?" Varn had to ask that question.

"Yes. Let's start with you, Itherian." The security head stated. "Fashtar has issued it: you're free to leave in two days. You should know the procedure. At dawn tomorrow, you should pack your things; go say your farewells to your friends here. Later on, at about 7 pm, there'll be a party in the mess hall, so feel free to knock yourself with alcohol. Dawn the next day, you'll be waken up at 4 am when you'll be taken to a ship in the space ship hangar waiting for you. You'll be given a souvenir for good behaviour, and it's not for sale. Clear?" To bring home that last part, she put a finger on Varn's forehead as if to make sure the words 'not for sale' really fit in there.

"Yes, ma'am." Varn said, saluting her with one of his big hands. Cireka turned to Nodoka, who turned stiff for a moment.

"Relax, I'm not going to eat you. I'm going to take your practice wand. Hand it over." Cireka held out her left hand for a quite reluctant Nodoka to put the wand in it. Then the officer showed up a small jewellery box for Nodoka, gesturing that she should take it. Nodoka accepted the box. "It was ordered from the Xamvadim system. Science people believed that having a practice wand would slow you since you have to keep an eye on it, so you were issued this instead." Finally she turned to Hina. "Your sword is to be upgraded. Do you have it on you?"

"Um, no, ma'am. I left it in my quarters today." Hina stated clearly after having looked Cireka clear in the eyes. It was very odd for her to have silver coloured eyes. Everybody else that worked here had black.

"That's fine. I'll have Kash fetch it later." Cireka turned to walk away, so the three of them could let out the breath they didn't realize had held the whole time. _"Don't think you're safe just yet, humans. Fashtar may be on your side for now, but once he looks away, I'll go for your throats." _Cireka's voice was heard inside the girls' heads, making them shiver as much as their bodies allowed them to.

"Are you two okay?" Varn asked them, seeing how fast they shook.

"Yes, we're fine." Nodoka responded first, shaking.

"Absolutely peachy." Hina followed, talking in the same frightened fashion as the mage. Once the two had calmed down, they turned their attention to Nodoka's box. "I wonder what it is." Hina asked. The little box in mention was purple in colour, round like a circle and could be opened if you twisted the lid and pulled apart them hard.

"I think I know." Nodoka responded before fiddling with the box, trying to find the right way how to open it. It didn't take long. It was probably the most beautifully crafted ring she's ever seen. It was her size, obsidian black and white, the colours in spiral coordination with each other and to put the spot over the 'I', there was a flawless diamond on top of it. It glowed slightly despite the absence of light.

"That is one beautiful ring there, miss." Varn pointed out. After all, the items that their hosts made were always put in high prices on markets outside the borders of the Imperium. "I bet that would normally fetch a very high price on the market."

Nodoka didn't care about what market she could fetch a prize for it on. This ring was now her official wand. Fashtar-san seemed very nice to give her this, probably expensive item out of the blue. And yet, it was awfully convenient. If Cireka did intend to kill them, then this ring would be invaluable. And if she was set free back on Earth, this could prove to be highly effective should Fate Averruncus show up again. (Cough*next chapter*cough, sorry)

* * *

Hina and Nodoka found Iyanna later that evening in their room; lying on her bed and reading a book that didn't hold any markings as to what the book was called and who wrote it. She seemed quite intrigued. The two humans went to sit in front to her by the table they had in the room.

"Sorry about asking you such a stupid question today." Nodoka said gently to Iyanna, who didn't look away from the book she was reading…with her nose.

"It's fine." Iyanna responded gently after taking a long sniff from the book and getting a long sniff of normal air it seemed.

"You're not mad?" Hina asked.

"Why? You didn't do anything bad, really." The alien responded.

"So why did you space out like that?" Nodoka asked looking at the book, which didn't have any markings at all in it.

Iyanna put aside the book for a moment and looked at the roof, since she was lying on her back. "It's just that…everyone I've met in my time here has always commented me on my skills, brains and beauty all the time, and yet, they've never asked me what I was. Truthfully I didn't know myself until a couple of years ago."

"So, it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be?" Hina asked.

"Nope. It just reminded me of my good times I've had here." The Eldar chuckled and returned to sniffing her book.

"Phew, that was good to hear. I thought it was because of the fact that you've been here since you were three-"

"Now you're pushing it." Iyanna snapped away from her book and looked at Hina quite mad. There was even a vein bursting on her forehead. As for the human girl, she didn't know that shaking faster than a rattlesnake's tail and at the same time, have your soul in the shape of a white blob with wings and halo on leave through your mouth was even possible. Fortunately for her, Nodoka managed to come up with a distraction.

"What kind of book are you reading?" That seemed to work on the Eldar, who snapped out of her anger almost instantly.

"Ah, now that I can answer at once. I don't know really who made these books, but they don't use markings, they use smells. You run your nose along and various smells come out. It took me a while to learn it fully."

"That's…that's pretty interesting." Hina said after recovering from her shock. "Do you have anymore of those books?"

"They're in that cabinet by the bedside. The one for beginners is at the top. Dictionary is just below." Iyanna responded while pointing to the cabinet next to her bed. Then she returned to her book, taking a long sniff in it before returning her to the air that came from the ventilation.

"Must be some heavy literature you're reading there, since you have to take a long sniff of normal air in between." Hina said as she took out the books she and Nodoka tried to read with their noses.

"Actually, it's a porn book." Iyanna said bluntly, making the humans blush instantly. To bring it home that it was embarrassing, Hina brought up her hand before her mouth and coughed on to it. "You should know, I can't sniff at a faster pace than this unless I want to-"

"NO NEED TO KNOW!" Both humans shouted at her, blushing furiously while thoughts which shouldn't normally be in teenage girls' heads overflowed. In Hina's case it was the idea with Hayate-kun, and in Nodoka, the sudden thoughts of Saishoudoukin came back again, this time it was nearly impossible to hold back.

Unfortunately for the two humans, a couple of rooms apart, another psionic, this one Thomas' roommate; Dak'kon picked up their thoughts a few minutes later. It was very bizarre for him, seeing those humans doing things which they shouldn't do. He would thank his patron saint Zerthimon that the people they thought doing it with, wasn't among the humans that the Yanki had abducted. _Well, it's not my business at all._

_

* * *

This nightmare was something new. There were no flames this time, they had died out now. Instead, the whole of Mahora, including the city, was in ruins and rubble. Debris wasn't picked up, because they weren't anyone around to pick it up. Well, she could pick it up, but Nodoka didn't seem to be in the mood. She walked what was once Sakura Lane where she had met Evangeline in her true form, the vampire. The trees were burnt, dead and the petals of the cherry blossom flowers were no longer __pink, but black and with dust particles._

_The middle school building was no longer intact. There were the invasionists, whose species' name Nodoka had never learned, patrolling the rubble of the buildings in search for survivors. Every now and then, they would find one, and drag him/her away to some place. But for some reason, the soldiers ignored Nodoka completely. She would be in plain view of them, but they just walked past her. One walked into her, there was even a bump. But he didn't do anything aggressive against her; he just apologized gently and continued in the direction. That was very odd. It was almost as if she had played an important of this attack. No, it can't be. She would never do such a thing. Would she?_

"_Hey, we got one! We got a healer alive!" She heard a soldier cry out, and several other soldiers rushed to the direction of the cry. Out of curiosity, Nodoka followed as well. When they noticed that she was there as well, the soldiers moved apart for her to pass through. She saw a pair of soldiers hold someone with their free hands between them, dragging the healer with her feet dragging along the concrete ground. The soldiers stopped when they saw Nodoka approach. For Nodoka that hairstyle and colour was very familiar. Walking up to her and taking a closer look, she saw that it was Ako. The nurse twitched at the librarian's touch and manages to lift her head to look at her seatmate._

"_Honya…-chan?" The healer said weakly. There didn't seem to be any wounds on the healer, but she was covered in bruises all over her ruined uniform. They didn't seem recent._

"_Ako. I'm here now. It's okay now." Nodoka said, trying her best to make a smile in vain._

"_Nodoka-sama, what should we do with her?" One of the soldiers asks, making the humans flinch at an instant. Nodoka-sama? Why were they addressing her like that? Did she play a part in the invasion after all? Why would she? Whatever, what did matter right now was to make sure her friend got off well from this too._

"_Ako, just so you know…" Nodoka whispered to the nurse, who looked shocked at her. "I don't know what is going on, or why they address me Nodoka-sama, but I can use this window to help you." The mage rose up and turned her stern gaze at the soldiers holding Ako. "I want hot food, drink and fresh clothing provided for her. No one touches her. Understood?"_

"_Yes, Ma'am!" The soldiers obeyed blindly and began to walk away. The soldiers holding the nurse quickly changed their way of holding the nurse, and lifted her from the ground to carrying her in their arms and walked away. A soldier having the rank of sergeant stood left at the site where Nodoka and Ako had reunited, along with the former._

"_Very good, my lady. Very good." The sergeant gave her a pat on the back and walked off in the opposite direction of the soldiers. Nodoka stood still, overlooking the destruction of the campus. She began to realize the purpose of this nightmare. And once she saw that, she decided to jump off a ledge._

* * *

Falling down in a dream has always proved to be an effective way of waking up from a dream. Breathing heavily, Nodoka found herself in the same room that she was put in along with Hina and Iyanna. The former of her roommates was sound asleep, didn't flinch from Nodoka's awakening. Iyanna was on the other bed, snoring lightly and sprawled out all over the bed, her left foot was on the pillow where her head should originally be. But Nodoka noticed a fourth figure in the room. This one was built the same as the guards, but he was different. Instead of black beads for eyes, his was more cat-like. And while the skin of the guards was either yellow or orange, his skin was green. Several tattoos in what could be best described as eastern monastic back on Earth covered his bare torso, as he also favoured a robe which left the chest open; therefore she could see his tattoos. On his arms, wraps of linens was on his wrists, to ease his movement of them.

"I saw it." He stated bluntly. "Seeing something like that in your sleep, can be quite hazardous."

"How do you know?" Nodoka asked out of curiosity.

"I've seen it before." The intruder answered almost immediately. "It's a favourite move of these bastards. They like to invade your mind, and twist with what they can find to manipulate your way of experiencing things."

"Who are you?"

"Dak'kon."

"Thomas' roommate." Nodoka pointed out.

"FYI, I've been here for ten years." Dak'kon pointed out for her, as she had wondered how long he had been stuck here. "That Fashtar fellow spoke the truth when he said you humans would only be here temporarily, but there are those here who have nowhere else to go. Take Iyanna for example. They killed her family and brought her here when she was just three years old. My people back home think me dead. Straha? He was born here, having no parents; he had to fight to survive. You humans are just lucky."

His words were harsh, but true. Nodoka began to realize something. How long they would be here, would depend on their amount of knowledge. In her case, it could take years before she saw everyone she knew again.

_Can you speak telepathically? _Nodoka wondered in her head.

"_Yes." _Dak'kon's voice was heard inside her head, as if he was talking, but he didn't open his mouth.

_Then keep what I intend to think to yourself, please._ Nodoka thought loudly for him to hear clearly, causing him to raise an eyebrow. _The night after the party, I intend to escape from here._

**

* * *

A/N: Annnnnddddd… Cut! We'll be leaving Nodoka here and move on to see how Negi and co can do with Fate on their side. Sorry for ending it abruptly here, but people tend to like cliff-hangers, so I'll leave it like that. Next chapter, we'll see how things are going for the humans back on Earth.**


	11. Girl intervention

**A/N: ****I'm trying my best to make longer chapters, but it seems to be difficult for me. I'll eventually get better as time goes. Now, we go to Negi and co and see what they're up to.**

* * *

"_Don't rely on just your powers to help you out." Kagetarou's voice said as Negi traversed in sheer darkness. Out of several methods of training his senses without magic to near superhuman level, this was new. Negi could only see himself in this darkness. Otherwise it was __blacker than pitch._

"_Your eyes will not aid you here. What will aid you here; will be your feet on the ground, your ears and your gut!" Kagetarou's voice roared as Negi narrowly avoided lances of seemingly light, that erupted from beneath him. More lances came against him, and they almost hit Negi, if he hadn't heard them coming like a pair of mundane arrows. A massive shadow came towards him with its hand clenched as fists with intention to punch him hard. Although he couldn't see the shadow, Negi felt it's presence through his feet, as pressure waves from the shadow's feet reached Negi's before itself could. He managed to block the first attack and then used the other attack to leap above the shadow, by leaning forward and jumping with his feet and literally used his own back to launch himself into the air. By the time he was above the shadow, he fired off his Fulguratio Albicans to finish it off, but he was too slow to react to the figure that was behind him._

"_Too slow." Janos' voice said as a blade slashed his shirt open._

* * *

"Oof. You guys are really not fooling around at all." Evangeline commented the fighters' capabilities as they made mincemeat out of Negi, metaphorically speaking, from her upper point of view from a window up in the library along with Fate. Ever since Negi's arm had fully healed from his wound caused by that Fashtar guy, it has been hell for Negi. He was given time off from training by night time, so he could rest with Asuna and Konoka, but in daytime, it was mental torture in class. Everyday, when available, Fate magically disguised as the Athenian teacher apprentice Bardas Komnenos, would help him with the girls in class to teach them how to pronounce English words correctly, act as P.E. teacher for them and getting along with them as if the character Fate never existed. He also had an interesting tactic of making sure that they study hard for exams: No homework! The other teachers were sceptic about the idea, but it was reported to have great impact in Europe, so it was bound to work. (1) It was certainly praised by the Baka Rangers, who always had trouble with their homework. Also, Yue and Makie could focus on their own magic studies while in their rooms.

On that matter, every member of the White Wing, save for Chachamaru, had been banned by Evangeline from using the resort to train, making them train someplace else. Negi was solely trained by Raziel, Kagetarou, Wilhelm and Janos, a new sword wielder enlisted by Fate before the magi's arrival at Mahora. Fate didn't train him at all, just holding short magic studying sessions that held no demonstrations.

"I didn't pick them out of a hat, Evangeline-san." Fate remarked as several books of different magic styles hovered in mid-air around them, thanks to telekinesis magic. "Every one of them is a seasoned veteran in his or her field."

"A vampire gunslinger, a precognitionist, a demon slayer, a healer, not very surprising there, a nobility level demon and a shadow user." Evangeline counted the whole group that the construct mage had brought in. "Where did you pick up such a bunch? Oh wait, I'll guess."

"If you have time to make random guesses at a time like this, then you should just go down there as well." Fate remarked, his face undisturbed by the annoyance of the vampire.

"Nah, I'll stay here. You are a lot more interesting than Boya right now." Eva retorted, making the white haired mage sigh. This was a very weird friend/enemy/trainer relationship they had. The two of them only had talked in the time they were in the resort, but Eva had made a bold move once to take 'Bardas' out for coffee once. The teacher had appreciated it at least, but he didn't say anything. They were friends because they both trained Negi and had coffee together, enemies because that was the official statement between Cosmo Entelecheia.

_Any day now, the other members of the White Wing will find out, and then we can begin the serious thing… _Fate's eyes strayed over at the coffin stored in the library.

* * *

Madoka bashed away the three shadow minions that Takane had summoned as representatives for those that took Nodoka. All she had was a bokken borrowed from Setsuna. She slashed wildly as the minions kept coming straight at her in pairs. They were unarmed, and were knocked back by her blows, but they just kept coming. There was no end to them. That was the point of this training. She would just keep going until she dropped exhausted.

This did happen a few seconds later. That's what you get for swinging wildly.

"You can't keep it like that, Madoka." Asuna's voice was heard as she came from behind the cheerleader. "Just swinging wildly at them won't do. You need to focus."

"You make it look so simple, Asuna." The cheerleader girl's voice came in response; depression was in it, light but there. "I just want to get stronger." Now anger took a root in her voice.

"That's not going to work." Yue was heard saying as the chibi mage came over to them, a hint of disappointment.

"Yue-chan." Asuna said as she saw the philosopher approach next to her.

"It's understandable to blame yourself for what happened to Nodoka, but using that blame to push you over the limit is too much. I'm sure that Negi-sensei is using it as well to push himself as well."

"So what if I use blame to train myself? It works, doesn't it?"

"In the short term, yes. But that blame will eventually grow inside you, to the extent that you will begin to hate yourself for everything you've done. Such occurrences have devastating effect on people, and the results are not what you like to hear." Yue stated blank.

"What sort of results are we talking about here?" Madoka asked out of curiosity and fright.

"Let's just say there are rumours about a place called, 'Suicide Island'…"

That remark left several girls around them shivering. Speaking of which, they were at the teachers' open backyard at the teacher dorm, where, frankly put, no one with free time comes to. The magic teachers come here to practice their skills. Since the girls were thrown out of the resort, they came here and asked to train here as well. No problem there, at all.

Everyone was changed after Nodoka had been taken away by Fashtar. Konoka had entered a light state of depression, since she had a chance that night to actually stop that dark figure, but even her training was not enough to put up a single spell against him. Setsuna had managed to snap the princess out of it, but she had to say 'Kono-chan' instead of 'ojou-sama' now, and it was clear that she didn't like it since Konoka was her charge, not her girlfriend, even after they had made a pactio together. The sport girls practiced hard together under Kaede and Ku Fei, in fighting styles. Well, Yuna and Akira did at least; Yue was good enough as a teacher in magic to those who used magic. Kotarou would every day go over to Eva's place and demand that they be let in, only to be smacked away by an annoyed vampire girl. Asuna focused on her Kankahou along with Takahata.

"Okay, everyone." Takahata called to everyone who was on the backyard. "That calls it for today. We'll continue tomorrow here same time, okay?"

"Okay!" Everybody answered him.

As everybody began to pack their things, Asuna and Yue approached their former homeroom teacher. "Takahata-sensei? Can we talk to you?"

"What is it?"

"It's about Negi-sensei." Yue answered almost immediately, making the teacher a bit nervous, though he didn't show it.

"Is there something you want to know about Negi-kun?"

"Yes." Yue stated bluntly. "Ever since his arm got healed, he's been acting strangely. He won't talk to us about what Evangeline-san puts him through; he always comes home with serious wounds for Konoka to heal, and we're not allowed to enter the resort. It's understandable that the training is for him, but we could at least be allowed in there with him, don't you think?"

"Takahata-sensei, do you know anything about this?" Asuna asked as well.

Their former teacher seemed a bit unease at these questions. He did know the real reason why they were shut out, but he was told specifically to not tell them. Reason was simply that they would have to find out themselves. He didn't like the thought of having Fate Averruncus this close to them, but if he was going to help them combat this new threat, then they have no choice but to accept him. _God, I hate politics on this level._

"I know about the real reason why, but I was strictly told not to tell you. Eva asked me to."

"Me, I don't care right now what Eva-chan says, what we care about is the welfare of Negi." Asuna said bluntly in front of her teacher. She got over the fact that he had dumped her at the festival, and they had worked it out eventually to stay as good friends. But she was still an ojicon.

"Eva did tell me that you would have to figure it out yourselves why Negi-kun is training by himself. On an aside note; she didn't care if the whole class found out, but that is what we would like to avoid if possible." Takahata responded as the others passed them on the way back to their dorms.

"That does sound like her." Asuna remarked.

* * *

Everyday, since it started, a member of Ala Alba would keep a look out for Negi when he would come back. They started it two days after his arm was fully healed, and they would hold a lottery about who would spot him first while the others waited for him in the lobby. Madoka had become their latest member after the incursion, and there weren't any objections to it, since she had become fully involved with magic that night. That was the only time since they've been to Eva for confirmation. She agreed to it, and designated the cheerleader as mainly a fighter, more of a guard wing, whose purpose was to give support to whomever needed it. That did require her to be a bit faster than the others, and that would take time. Even then, they had been banned.

This time on watch, it was Chisame's turn. Since taking absolute control over the Internet had become a _real_ bore, she didn't really complain about it. But her temper was something to be accounted for, since she was stepping on the ground with her left foot, leaning against the wall of the building. It took a while, but she eventually spotted Chachamaru carrying Negi on her back. His left leg seemed badly hurt after a training accident, it seemed.

"Hello, Chisame-san." The gynoid greeted the net idol.

"Yo, Chachamaru." Chisame responded. She then turned her attention to Negi. "Are you okay, Negi-sensei? Should I get Konoka here?"

"No, no, I'm fine, Chisame-san. Eva told me to leave it alone. Besides, I could go with a break." The magic teacher responded, making the net idol a bit worried. She reluctantly agreed to that condition for him and they entered. The rest of Ala Alba spotted them and rushed over to Negi's side, drowning him in questions, both about the training and his broken leg.

"Negi-kun! I can't accept that you're going with a broken leg." Konoka said as she picked out her wand to heal it, but Negi managed to halt her, though not easily.

"Konoka-san. I'm fine. I just need some rest, the next day off and I'm good to go. Plus, I intend to have Bardas-sensei handle you tomorrow." Negi told them. "Make sure he doesn't have it easy, okay?" He was so mad at Fate for breaking his leg. Which does remind him of why he was going to have the day off tomorrow.

_**FLASHBACK!**_

"_Takahata-sensei __just called me." Chachamaru reported as the whole group had left the resort. "The rest of Ala Alba is anxious to join in on the training with Negi-sensei."_

"_That was a lot quicker than I anticipated." Fate remarked as they entered the living room of the cabin. "I did know that they were going to find out shortly, but not this fast. I at least expected another three days."_

"_Is there something we ought to do about that?" Raziel, their vampire gunslinger grinned. "I would like to…"_

"_No. We are doing that thing, Raziel." Fate quickly scolded his soldier. "Hannah, can you give me a time when they are going to make their stand?"_

"_Tomorrow, after class." The fortune teller responded calmly._

"_As long as I'm really okay," Negi started up as realization dawned on him. "They won't do a thing. But if to say that they don't know about my condition, then they would do anything."_

_Fate had to agree on that one. What kind of question the White Wing would ask would depend on Negi's welfare. They heard a chuckle and saw Eva coming towards the two of them._

"_Then let's make them do anything." The vampire lady said. "If Boya is absent tomorrow, then they will be willing to accept any factor to join in. Think you'll be able to handle them on your own, Averruncus?"_

"_I should be able to do that." Fate responded to that. "And as for Negi-kun's absence…" He thought about a good excuse for a few moments, then without warning delivered a devastating kick to Negi's left leg, making him fall down and grasp it in pain. "I do believe that severe injury is a good excuse." Fate noted without smiling at all._

_Evangeline took a moment to recall the teacher's manual before nodding. "Yes, that's right. Chachamaru, will you be so kind to carry Boya to the dorms?"_

"_Yes, Mistress." The gynoid responded before picking up her teacher from the floor and walking away from the cabin._

_**END OF FLASHBACK**_

After having put Negi in bed with that break, Asuna and Konoka decided to hold a meeting with the other members. They were in the lobby. They had managed to hold down Chachamaru until the meeting's over.

"I'll be blunt." Asuna stated in front of the others. "I can't take this thing anymore. Not allowed to train in the resort, not allowed to know the truth and Negi's getting beat up all the time by Eva-chan. It kills me to even stand by and watch him."

"We feel the same about this, Asuna-san." Setsuna responded to her, and several of the girls nodded to bring it home. "What's more, Negi-sensei always ensures us that it's nothing to worry about when we know that it's the opposite."

"He's hiding something from us. And Eva-san knows too, definitely." Yue said, her blank as well, but her mouth was currently moving around in discontent. Apart from that, her face didn't change at all.

_She didn't care if __the whole class found out. _Takahata's words came ringing in Asuna's head as she watched the others discuss what to do about this. Now an idea formed in her head. It was radical, and the dean probably didn't want this to happen, but if they were going to put pressure on Eva, then that was the way to go. "Hey." She called to them, catching their attention. "I got an idea. It's not what the teachers would have in mind, but I think that it's going to work if we're all in it."

"What do you mean by tha…?" Setsuna started, but the question died as she began to realize what Asuna meant when their eyes locked for a brief. "You're nuts." The hanyou couldn't be clearer.

"I'm certain, Setsuna-san. We alone can't put pressure on Eva-chan, but if the whole class…"

"Involving the others who doesn't know about magic could result in Negi-sensei getting fired." The samurai retorted.

"So? We're under pressure from these whackos that kidnapped Honya-chan, we don't know when they will hit us if they do, and you're worried about Negi losing his position? There's a bigger picture here, and I think that a few of the teachers are not seeing it or they ignore it." Asuna responded. The others couldn't believe it; for the first time in a long while since that accident with the portal spell, Asuna was actually saying something logic!?

"Okay." Haruna started looking directly at the magic canceller. "Who are you? And what have you done with Asuna?"

"Somebody shoot a spell at her!"

"Hey, now!" Asuna said loudly at them. "I'm serious here!" She tried to step back as Yuuna prepared a magic arrow, well remembering the last time she had to be practice dummy for their combat magic. It didn't go well.

"She's stepping back, she could be a fake!" Haruna noted with glowing eyes as she usually had.

"Wait, I don't want another accident." Asuna held up a hand to block the incoming blast, and as it fired, the arrow went straight into her hand, before bouncing off and hitting Haruna right in the face. "Aw man, not again!"

"How is she?"

How about:_**Disabled! Sprawled out on the floor!**_

"That's…that's pretty bad, isn't it?" Ako noted, looking at Haruna's health stats.

_**Oh yes.**__** (**__**2**__**)**_

"Look, the point is, it was bound to happen sooner or later that the others would find out about us. We're the majority of the class right now. And it wouldn't take long before one of us would eventually stumble, make a mistake and have someone, probably from our class, discover about all of us. I think that its better that we take initiative first rather than an accident occurs. Right?" Asuna said while Haruna tried to say 'Medic' in an undecipherable way. At least that's what they thought what she was trying to say.

"Yeah, you're right. It's not going to be pretty." Setsuna said, imagining what the reaction would be from the teachers, or the dean for that matter.

"We lost 'pretty' when the whackos showed up." Asuna retorted at her. "Chachamaru-san. Can we trust you not to tell Eva-chan?"

The gynoid found her being stared at by the other members of Ala Alba. Most seemed to beg with their eyes, while some seemed neutral and looked at her expecting some response.

"Well," Chachamaru started. "I was told to not tell you about Negi-sensei's training…but my record logs don't say anything about being told about reporting about your activities." The robot finished with a smile, lighting up the moods of the others.

"Chacha-chan, you're the best!" Konoka had to give her a hug. (**A/N: I did not invent 'Chacha-chan' for your information.)**

_Great. _Asuna thought to herself as things were lighting up and the others prepared how to break the ice as best they could with the other classmates. _Prepare yourself, Eva-chan. You're going down tomorrow._

* * *

The next day, everybody was chatting in the classroom before Bardas-sensei would enter and start the lesson. But they weren't chatting about the everyday things that girls would normally talk about, or even the latest condition of Negi. No, they were talking idly about magic. Really, they did. The more experienced members of Ala Alba, which's true form had been revealed, were explaining the forms of magic that existed in the world, while the new members (unofficial, at least) were taking notes and discussing what they should be able to do in their new position, should they be accepted by Eva-chan. The vampire girl had yet to enter class yet, since she had developed the tendency of accompanying Bardas, therefore confirming him to be a mage as well. Yue had told them at first, and after seeing them chatting together like friends (they thought), it was definitely true.

"Ne, ne, Kaede-nee, would you mind teaching us some more ninja skills after this?" Fuuka asked the tall fox-eyed girl as she sat down with a smile on her face.

"If you promise you train hard, then I might do that. I don't want any slacking." Kaede responded.

"Say, Madoka, what are you in the team?" Misa, self-appointed magic learner asked her friend with the husky voice while holding her newly acquired wand from Yue. (She snatched it, truthfully)

"I'm a support fighter. No good for magic." Madoka responded to her 'mage' friend. "And how come you get to be a mage?"

"Isn't it obvious? Magical girls are beautiful, aren't they? And as head-cheerleader in 3-A, I got that naturally, right?"

"Oh, so it's okay for you, but not for me to be a mage, right?" Madoka remarked with an obvious sarcastic smile. "Eva-chan got to mark you too. Don't forget that, Misa." She pointed at her fellow cheerleader.

"Hey, teacher's coming!" Makie called to the others, making them rush to their seats. First Evangeline entered, smirking at the others as she made her way to her seat. As she stood by her seat, Bardas came in.

"Rise!" Misora called to the girls. For her part, she was pulled into this adventure due to guilt, plus she didn't want to be bashed in by Asuna. "Attention!" She called, making them address Bardas as he laid his things on the table. "Bow!"

Everybody bowed. "Good morning, Sensei!"

"Good morning, everyone. Negi-sensei is, as you know, resting from an injury, so I got to tutor you for today. Is that okay?" Bardas wondered with a smile on his face, it was small and didn't show off his perfect teeth as he usually did.

"Yes." The girls responded with their own smile and eyes closed.

"Now then, I don't know what Negi-sensei has taught you, and I don't know your level in English either, so shall we begin with seeing what you have learned first, shall we?" Bardas took up a book and opened a random page.

_After the class (They tend to be boring, so I skipped the lesson. Sorry, but I'm writing this story)_

"Hey, Eva-chan." Asuna called to the vampire as Bardas left the room and Eva was almost out. The vampire noticed that the whole class was looking at her, all serious, save for Satsuki, who merely packed her things and proceeded to leave as well.

"What is it, Asuna?" Eva smirked at the redhead. "The usual?" She referred to Negi as the usual, as that was what Asuna had been asking her about these past days.

"That's right, the usual." Asuna responded to her.

"And she's not the only one." Ayaka spoke up, as a signal for the rest of the class to stand up and face Eva. It took a few moments for the vampire to realize it all, before smirking.

"You told the rest of them, huh?" The smirk turned into a grin. "Well, the majority told the minority, it seemed. And now all of you know. This I didn't expect." Eva said.

"You sound as if you… no, you knew that we would come at you today." Setsuna accused her.

Eva didn't even attempt to hide it. "I knew that you ask today about Boya, but what I didn't know was that you would bring in the rest of the class into this." She turned to a random member of the class. "Why should you care about Negi when you got Kotarou to take care of, Chizuru?"

The most well endowed classmate had to put a pout on her face, no matter how small it was. "Negi-sensei is in need of good support in this matter. I thought he was just missing Nodoka when she left, but after hearing that she was kidnapped…"

"You told them that too!?" Eva cut off Chizuru by turning to Asuna, whose silence was the answer she needed and then started to laugh. "This is getting more and more interesting. What else?"

"The dean and Takahata-sensei has been informed that we told the whole class." Yue took the vampire by surprise. "However reluctant, they accepted that it would have been only a matter of time before those that didn't know would have found out. Also, all of us here are her by choice, and not because we had no choice. We told them and gave them the coice to either help or just go on with their own normal lives."

"Hey." Misora pointed out, since she had been forced to join them. Mainly because of Asuna's threat.

Evangeline just smirked again and looked at the rest of the girls. This was a very bold move by them, and she was being pushed into a corner. _So they are capable of strategic thinking as well. Well, Averruncus planned that we accept them too. Oh well, might as well go along with them. _"Fine."

"Hey, you are not cutting us…pardon?" Asuna had to make sure she heard right there.

"I said, fine. This is some good planning you made." Eva stepped out of the classroom and went the left way. "I take it you all know about my real nature, too?" Her voice said, as if she was still standing in the classroom. Asuna gave pursuit of her along with Setsuna, Ayaka, Yue and Yuna. They turned to the left and found…nothing. Eva wasn't there at all, as if she hadn't taken the left way.

"Over here." Her voice came from behind them. She was leaning against the corner pillar of the hallway, making it seem like she went right instead of left of the exit from the classroom. The girls were a bit stunned at that. "What? It's natural that vampires can move instantly where they want. Otherwise, it wouldn't seem all cool to those fiction writers." She took a stroll past the pillar, leaving them alone again. "You know, normally, the curse wouldn't allow me to do these features," Eva's voice came this time from the other end of the hallway, which was a good 40 metres away from where they were. "However, one of the limiters that hold my powers down has been removed, giving me back the basic powers for any vampire to possess. It also gives me increased physical strength and speed as well." Eva came running at them, with the speed of approximately 10 miles/hour, before lifting up Asuna clean off the floor and swiping off the others too. She eventually stopped by the pillar. "Suffice to say; don't expect the new training to be any easier than what it usually was. But if you think you're up to it, then you should come to the World Tree plaza. There's a surprise for you there." The vampire finally took her leave from them, after Asuna's back had connected with the floor.

"That was way better than what we usually of Evangeline-san." Setsuna remarked helping Asuna up from the floor.

"Do you think the dean could have removed that limiter?" Yue asked, still lying down.

"Possibly."

"Surprise or not, we're going to the plaza. All who want to back out can do it now." Asuna said as she straightened herself and brushed off dirt from her uniform. "Let's go."

Surprisingly, just the twins backed out of this. None blamed them for it.

**

* * *

A/N: That confirms it. I may write short, but I write **_**good**_** stuff. This is the start of the Arcadia arc. You get to learn why it's named Arcadia about three chapters later. The limiter stuff comes from Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, where the magi have limited powers to ensure no one gets too good. It's called limiters, restricting them from their original levels to something more suitable. Quite efficient. **

**1 This was how I was educated. Hence why I had lousy homework done, if my former teachers are reading this.**

**2 Do you think I should quit with these, or do they give extra laughs to you?**


	12. Happy reunion not!

**A/N: I'm sorry for leaving the twins out of the adventures, but I couldn't find a place for them in this story. Don't worry; they are still part of it. Now, things are boiling up for the girls. Can't wait to see their faces. You might want to listen to some fitting music; Nightwish is always a good choice.**

**This story is rated 'T' for violence, blood and language in later. You have been warned  
**

* * *

"_They're on their way, Raziel. You're up first." _Fate telepathically instructed the vampire as he sat on one of the branches of the World Tree. It was quite amazing that it had its own barrier. Figures why it isn't recorded in the Guinness Record books. Anyhow, Raziel snapped out of his daydreaming (which you should not know about) and tilted his head to find a group of nearly thirty girls heading towards the Tree Plaza. Sitting on that branch all morning hurt, his legs sent letters of complaint to his brain as he stood up. _Someone remind me to exercise more often._

As he swayed his arms around, he spotted a familiar face among those girls headed to the plaza. Now this caught his attention. Who could forget that face, that personality in battle, those skills with weapons, and finally, not to mention that body of hers. Oh, it feels like it must be fate to encounter her again. Shame they're going to be on the same side from now on.

"_Averruncus. I thank you for letting me be first out." _Raziel sent telepathically to his employer.

"_Thank me later. Get to it."_

* * *

Eva was already expecting them to arrive at the plaza. She had her special chair ready, the same one she had brought for Negi's test to see if he was ready for being her disciple. This time, though, she was sitting on it, having a cup of tea ready, making it look like she was going to enjoy a show. "I thought so. You couldn't resist staying away." She smirked at them.

"We're here for Negi, Eva-chan." Asuna said sternly, looking directly at the vampire. "For him we'd do anything."

Eva just had to laugh mentally at their stupidity. If they were going that far for Boya… "Alright, then you should meet the others then." She said as Takane, Kotarou and Mei, having received the phone calls, came to the class' side as well. "And I'm not referring to them."

"Others?" Setsuna asked as she heard that Eva wasn't referring to the new arrivals. "What do you mean?"

"I'll be honest with you; the same night Miyazaki was kidnapped, a group of individuals came to my cabin. Their ringleader had a proposition for me: Since he had encountered those guys before, he offered me and the dean assistance in fighting them back, should they come back in force. Given his nature, I accepted it, just to see the look on Boya's face. It was delightful." Eva couldn't help but recall Negi's face then. "He's agreed to see what you can do."

"_**And you'd better be prepared." **_A male voice said, catching them all by surprise. It sounded far away, and at the same time, as if he was standing right among them. It was deep and sounded also a bit joyful. _**"Sa-shi Bu-ri." **_He told them. (It means: 'Long time, no see' or 'it's been a while')

"It's been a while? What does this guy mean…?"

"He's referring to me." Mana spoke up, catching most of them by surprise. She had a duffel bag slung over her shoulder and was casting her eyes in almost every direction. "It's been a while to you too, Raziel."

"_**Three years, Mana-chan. Back then you were a little girl and flat-chested… now on the other hand…" **_They heard a wolf whistle from this Raziel fellow, who surely was admiring Mana's figure. _**"Well, your classmates are not too bad either. The boys here must be willing to get their hands literally on them."**_

"Hey!" Yuuna called to him. "Just who do you think you are really!?"

_**Bang!**_A lamp post close to them exploded violently, shocking all of them.

"_**I am Raziel the gunslinger, and I was talking to Mana-chan there."**_ This time, he sounded a bit angry. Yuuna promptly backed off.

"Tatsumiya-san, do you know this guy?" Asuna asked, standing still in an attempt to not provoke this other sniper. Mana frowned upon telling them, even hesitated at the thought, but since they were all in danger, she assumed it was the best choice to do.

"I suppose I could tell you guys. Three years, I was a partner to a great mage. We travelled the world in search of battles and protecting civilians. One time we were assigned the mission of protecting a drug lord. We didn't know it of course. Drug wars raged on, and in their desperation to win, the other side hired a pair of assassins to eliminate our side's lord. Namely…"

"_**Me and my master." **_Raziel answered in her place. _**"To be honest I was surprised to see a mage at that lord's side along with a little girl. That's where I made my mistake."**_

"Raziel is a Minister Magi, having a unique artefact. Compared to my artefact, a pair of guns that always hit home with every shot, his artefact is able to change into any type of firearm and has no limit on ammunition." Mana said as she picked a rifle and loaded it with what seemed to be armor piercing rounds.

"Didn't you have unlimited ammo?" Misora asked the sniper of their group.

"It's almost like a cheat code." Haruna piped in.

"No." Mana answered them bluntly. "My artefact could only enhance bullets and make sure they hit their target, but it had to be reloaded."

"_**Furthermore, my mistake was that I became overconfident, and her bullets almost wiped me out. Shame she lost that day." **_

"Enough banter about the past." Eva spoke up. "I'm drinking tea here because I wish to see a good show, not to hear stories."

"_**Sorry. Okay, Mana-chan, here's the rule: I got a rubber bullet fixed on you right now. You got one chance to shoot me down. If you can't hit me or find me, then I'm going to shoot you. You won't be dead, but you'll miss the real surprise. Do we have terms?" **_To bring home the point that he wasn't joking, there was the sound of a gun being cocked. Mana responded to that by stuffing a clip full of bullets up her rifle and cocking it ready.

The girls made a circle for Mana to stand in freely, standing a good four feet away from her. She tried her best at concentrating back to that battle down in Brazil. Down in the slums… that alley… when Raziel first made his entry against her team…

_From what I can remember, he likes to get spotted at first. He made the first shot then. He's already given the first shot now, and when he did it the first time we met, it was… at a high place! _Mana turned her attention to the World Tree, raising her rifle towards the branches. _Come on, you vampire… you like to show yourself. _Her eyes scanned the branches that were open for any abnormal thing on them. _Not there… yet I feel his gaze on me from over there. Maybe somewhere thicker… _It didn't take her long to spot a red glow among the thicker branches. Using her Demon eyes, she saw a pair of red glowing eyes. _Found you!_

_**Bang!**_ The bullet hit straight on in between the eyes and just two seconds later, they all saw a humanoid form fall down on the ground. Eva had to applaud the sniper's move.

"Bravo, Tatsumiya. That's one down. And three more to go." On response, a new figure came. This one was dressed in a black shirt with brown pants, with a loose fitting long coat on in grey colour. He also had a pair of rectangular glasses with metal frames. He had rugged blond hair, with scars all over his face. He brandished also white gloves.

"Pleased to meet you all. I'm your next opponent." He greeted them with a gentle bow before plucking out a pactio card which he had in his pocket.

"Let me explain, Janos." Eva called to him. "FYI, the opponents are only for the senior members of Ala Alba. So you newbies don't have to go up against them. We're not that crazy."

"Didn't think you would let them go to an early grave, Eva-chan." Asuna said sarcastically as the more close combat members prepared to fight this new arrival.

"I'd like nothing more than to whack this ringleader they got here. Where is he?" Kotarou said impatiently, having figured out the trick behind the new arrivals showing up one after another.

"Kotarou." Setsuna warned him.

"Don't you girls get it? They come out one after another to tire us out. If this guy wanted to see us in action, then why doesn't he come himself?" Kotarou stated plainly, making Janos flinch and Eva look at him.

A mobile phone rang, catching everybody's attention. It was Konoka's. She picked it up and checked what it was.

"It's a text message. It's written for you, Kotarou-kun." The healer handed over her cell phone to the wolf boy to look at.

_You beat Janos first,_

_then I'll show up._

"That's it?" Kotarou looked at the message. "All we got to do is beat that Janos guy and he'll show up." He said happily as Janos' face went a bit pale. "This, I'm going to enjoy."

"Yeah, this will be great." Asuna said as her harisen came forth. Yuuna had her sword and shield ready, Setsuna called forth her artefact with Negi, along with the artefacts of those who had them. Chisame of course was an exception. She just stood by. Janos on the other hand, began to smile a little in front of them.

"Sorry if my smile scares you a little, but when I have foes in my sights," He summons forth his artefact, which was a pair of sword sized bayonets. The length of a blade they were and had the same build of a rifle bayonet from the eighteenth century for the muskets. "I do not stop until they are defeated."

"Kotarou." Asuna got the wolf boy's attention. "You stand out of this one."

"Huh, why?"

"Simple. You're to fight the boss. Can't have you be exhausted while fighting him, now could we?" Asuna's point made him simply nod. The boss of these guys could be much better than the rest of them. So the girls were up against this Janos fellow.

"Enough banter." Janos said as he began to close the distance between them slowly first, then picking up the speed. The first one he went for was Asuna, swinging his right-handed bayonet at directly at her face. The magic canceller managed to block it, barely, and at the same time, Janos managed to avoid an attack from Setsuna, and block Yuuna's sword. However, he failed the third attack from Ku Fei and flew backwards some good five meters. Quickly regaining his composure, Janos decided to make a flanking attack against where it would really hurt, the spell casters. He ran with an amazing speed, equal to the girls in full speed and jumped over Kaede and Akira as the two girls tried to stop him.

_He's really fast. _Kaede noticed at him as the bayonet wielder came rushing straight at Konoka. Raising his bayonet, he failed to notice two others coming at him, his eyes was only set on the healer of the team. But his weapon was blocked in the last minute. It was a big sword, but not Asuna's, as the redhead had failed to notice where he had gone. It was Yue's, held by the short girl by the shaft and by Madoka on the blunt side near the top of the blade, standing next to Konoka. (Seriously, the magic world blades have a blunt side. Why do they have that?)

"Wha-?" Janos said before getting whammed in the side by Setsuna. Madoka took a step forward and used her own body weight to push Janos backwards and Yue picked up the rest by swinging the blade against the male fighter, making him step backwards.

_I hope this move works. _Madoka thought to herself as she took advantage of Janos' guard being let down. "Hah!" She shouted as her fingers, namely the index finger and the long finger, were being jammed right into Janos' throat. Janos took a step back, dropped his bayonets and clasped his throat in an attempt to get more air. In doing so, he dropped his guard even more and was hit in the stomach by Ku Fei, making him fly a good distance away from them

« Foa Zoa Cratia Socratia ! Kenotētos Astrapsatō de Temetō! Dios Tukos ! » Yue's voice was heard as the massive amount of lightning came crashing down upon the grown up man, rendering him knocked out and…1: Stop! We can't have it like that! 2: Can't we? 1: No! We gotta do it more noticeable that he's down. 2: Well then, how about:

_**Toughness Failure! Disabled! On the ground! Unconscious! Seeing little white wings flying above his head! **_2: Is that good? 1: Yeah, that is good.

"You know, those health stats are starting to get on my nerves." Asuna said, putting away her artefact.

"Madoka-san." Setsuna's tone made the cheerleader shiver. "What were you thinking, going in the way like that? You could have gotten seriously injured."

"Ah, I'm sorry." Madoka responded flustered. "I couldn't just stand by while Konoka-san was in danger. Er, plus I was closer than you were." Madoka tried to reason with the swordswoman, who thought it over. She could have closed the distance with a shundou _if _her reaction time was within the range, and Konoka didn't see him approach fully, or maybe she thought that Janos was after another. Asuna's sword was too big to swing freely there, but what if Kaede…?

Setsuna sighed after looking through the possibilities. "Alright. You get off this one." Madoka let out a breath she didn't know she had. "Only…" Setsuna wondered. "How did you do that thing with the fingers?"

"Ah, that was just something I picked up from a ninja movie we saw in our dorm once, Me, Misa and Sakurako." Madoka laughed nervously, before feeling Kaede's eyes on her.

"Was it the more historically accurate or the dumb kind with the ninjas in all black and hopping all over the place?"

"…The former…" Madoka managed to get out. That was the first time she's seen Kaede's eyes open. Really!

"Then it is okay. I get a bit picky if it's those amateur ninja movies." The fox-eyed ninja said closing her eyes again.

Kotarou on the other hand didn't seem to bother at all about that move Madoka pulled off. He was more focused on something else. Like; fighting the enemy boss. "Okay. We beat Janos. Now he's got to show himself. Where is he?" He asked directly Eva. The vampire smirked at him.

"No need to shout, mutton. He's already here."

"Call me by name." Kotarou complained. As he looked around, a wind picked up. It was a strong wind, making the girls' skirts to flip rapidly, allowing an bystander to see their underwear. Luckily for the girls, the only bystander around was unconscious. And as the wind kept blowing, a figure in a magi cloak came from behind Evangeline's chair. The wind blew from behind him, leaving no indication as to who it was.

"So, you're the boss?" Kotarou asked the figure as he just stood next to Eva's chair. The figure didn't respond to the wolf boy. "Oh, you're one of those guys that just want to get down to business. Sounds good to me." This time the figure nodded back at him. "Are we going to do this or wha…?" Before Kotarou had finished, the figure had appeared behind and gave a really, really hard blow to the wolf boy's head, sending him flying away from him. Next thing Kotarou knew, the figure appeared in front of him and caught him in a striking combo, with the side of the palms and the wrists to hit several places on Kotarou. (For the record, not the side with the thumbs)

_That's Hikaken!_ Ku Fei said loudly. Hikaken or Piguaquan was a Chinese martial art more suited for combat. Utilizing one's limbs in rotation, one can use long-range explosive power. But since it focuses on long-range, means it is weak in close quarters. "Kotarou, get in close! He no good when you get past his limbs!" Of course, Eva didn't say anything about giving advice in the midst of a battle.

"Alright!" Kotarou swiftly managed to get out of the combo by managing to get his feet on the ground (he had been airborne in the combo) and push himself into his cloaked opponent, stopping the barrage of attacks. "Got you now!" Kotarou shouted as he elbowed his opponent in the gut sending him flying away. Kotarou smiled to himself as he launched into a charge against the boss.

"No!" Ku Fei shouted at him, but too late. Kotarou's opponent had managed to regain his footing, and when Kotarou came in close, he spun around past Kotarou's left, and as he stood sideways with his right hand closer to the wolf boy, he chopped down with his right hand first on Kotarou's neck and then his left hand came at high speed on the same spot.

_**Kotarou: Injured. Boss: Bruised. Und I need to quit with these.**_

Kotarou's eyes went blank for a split second, then snapped into focus again and he regained his footing. "It's on, now!" He shouted as his Inugami came out from beneath the two of them.

_Always the rash one, Kotarou. _The boss, so far his real identity concealed, recalled as he performed a shundou in order to extend the distance between them and launched several arrows of sand. Sand arrows had a shotgun effect, making it a dangerous element to use. Although it lacked the explosive power of light or stunning ability of lightning, it did however penetrate armor. You do want to be hit by one of those arrows. Enough about that. Kotarou managed to dodge most of the arrows, and the final one managed to graze him on his arm. But it was enough to make a bit of a blow on him. Flinching, Kotarou made another charge at the boss flanked by two of his Inugami. As the boss fired off a wind gust, the wolf boy had dodged to the side of his right Inugami, making the boss focus on the two Youkai instead of the Hanyou. He grabbed one of them by the fur and slams it into the other one, and then narrowly dodges a vicious attack from Kotarou.

And as he passed by, their eyes locked. Kotarou's fiery Hanyou eyes linked with the dark blue, emotionless stare of the boss, who seemed a bit familiar underneath the hood. This, Kotarou couldn't believe what he saw. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? Crushed underneath a mountain of rubble?

The two distanced themselves, the boss regaining his concealing pose, and Kotarou's Inugami gathered at its master. But Kotarou realized who it really was, as he could clearly see his face now. "Of all the… What are _you_ doing here?" He snarled at him.

"Kotarou. Do you know who that is?" Kaede asked him, making the boss turn a blind eye towards their direction. Even though he couldn't see them, it was clear that he paid attention to them.

"Why don't you take off that robe?" Kotarou said directly, making the boss turn his eyes towards the Hanyou, before bopping his head downward slightly. A hand went up to untie the strings of the robe, making it loose fitting.

"On the whole, I was impressed." Fate Averruncus said as he took off the robe and turning around to see the girls, in return for them to see him. "You've certainly improved since last time, Ala Alba."

"You again!?"

"Fate Averruncus!"

"Let's get him!"

Several girls with combat skills rushed at him. Only to be pulled back by some unseen force and sliding backwards on the floor. At roughly the same time, Raziel, much to Mana's shock landed beside Fate. Or more like, as if he had just suddenly appeared over by the magi's side. Kotarou dispelled his Inugami, since making a move on this magus was not a good idea. Almost nothing was a good idea against him. As much as he'd hate to admit it, it was true.

"You people seem so tense." Eva said, her hand held up as the sunlight reflected on the strings on the tip of her fingers. "I should recommend a relaxation program for you."

"Eva-chan!" Asuna shouted protesting at the vampire girl. "What the hell are you doing!? He's the enemy!"

"As much as you say that, Kagurazaka Asuna," Fate said, removing the robe from him fully. "I'm not here for our 'happy reunions'."

"Then what are you doing here in the first place!?" Chamo said, since he had somehow kept quiet, been asleep or away this whole other time. (I forgot about him, sorry)

"That is the big surprise." Evangeline responded to the ermine's question, appearing next to Fate and putting her elbow on his shoulder. "Until this crisis with the aliens blows over and we get Miyazaki back, Fate here is going to be our ally."

The looks on the girls' faces (the senior ones in Ala Alba) could be best described as this: If being shocked and surprised at the same time was lightning, then they were pretty much standing on a hilltop in a thunderstorm, wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards!' **(A/N: I know someone who did that once. He was twitching for a week)**

"I recall your name." Ayaka said, catching the white haired mage's attention. "Negi-sensei and Asuna-san said that you were an old acquaintance in the magic world. Why would they react to you like this?"

"That's what they told you?" Fate said, undisturbed in his face but mentally surprised. "They were partially telling the truth back then."

Ayaka turned her eyes towards Asuna, who turned a bit stiff and tried to move away, though the strings kept her from going anywhere really fast. "Asuna-san…You have a few things to explain."

"Can't we take it later?" Asuna tried to ask nicely.

"No."

"No telling." Asuna retorted in an attempt to stop her.

"Ahem." Fate called their attention. "This is not a good place to talk right now. We should probably head to the resort." He gestured for them to follow him and Raziel, who had picked up Janos, still unconscious. "We'll meet the rest over there as well."

_The rest? _The girls thought as they, one by one, magic user, fighter and mundane alike, followed the group of magic monsters (in speaking of power level, of course) towards the vampire lady's home.

* * *

For being in his 'mourning time', Negi was having fun. Having challenged to a non-magical duel of martial arts by Koyomi, the cat-eared Ministra of Fate, seemed to spark things up for him. And for all her posture, Koyomi was not a pushover. She moved with the same amount of agility of the animal she was linked with, and had the hurting power of a kickboxer. She had mentioned that she was excellent in Savate, the _French _kickboxing, the only one in the world to allow shoes to be worn in the ring, and her moves backed up the words. Kenpo was good, but this was something else for Negi. She came at him with punches and kicks in rapid succession, while he swirled his arms around to block the kicks, and then try to hit her. Koyomi had an extra weapon: her tail. Used correctly, it was dangerous. When Negi tried to deliver an attack, she simply twirled to side and swatted his nose with the tail. The tickling in the nose made Negi sneeze, her chance to bring him down. But as she grabbed on to him (Savate do have wrestling techniques too), Negi jumped up, swung around and pushed her down onto the ground, making her land first with him on top. They could thank God that they were alone on a mountain edge with no one else around, because it looked like the wizard boy had just forced himself onto her. It was only after the two had regained their breath, that Negi realized that he had his hands right on Koyomi's breasts. Even though it was so he could gain the upper hand, it still looked a bit adult.

"Sorry." Negi quickly apologized, blushing furiously and jumping away.

Koyomi merely chuckled and rose into a sitting position, covering her breasts with her hands, even though she had clothes on. "The son of the Thousand Master, successor to the magic world and the Ostian throne, defeated by a pair of breasts." She smirked at him, even though she was blushing herself. "You lose one girl and then you move on to another. You're going to be a fearful ladies' man when you get older, you do know that?"

"Don't remind me." Negi responded to that. He has heard it from Takamichi, Asuna, Haruna (more on the adult parts), Misa (also adult stuff) not to mention also Chizuru once after he had been spotted by the busty student to talk away some cute students. They all seemed to scream silently since he was such a cutie. Then again, it didn't help that they tried to abduct him away from 3-A. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, Chizuru arrived at the scene, and they retreated. Something about that they wouldn't lose in terms of size. What did they mean by that, exactly? "Too many people have told me already."

Koyomi giggled a little, and removed her arms from the breasts area. "Maybe they had a glimpse into the future and gave you a heads up?"

"Nah, seeing that far into the future is a bit impossible without the proper means." Negi retorted.

"We could always ask Hannah-san." Koyomi said, tilting her head to the side.

Changing subject, Negi looked off to the castle to their right. "Why did you challenge to a fight in the first place?"

Koyomi sighed and rose up from her sitting to stand up instead. "I grew up learning that instead of mourning a loss, one should do something to forget the sorrow. No good just being sad rather than doing something about it."

"Good point there." Negi said. He had nearly gotten over the fact that Nodoka was gone, yet he had been a bit sad over that. So he had his special moment for himself when he normally wouldn't have training. Just focus on the good times he had with the bookworm. It probably pained Koyomi who seemed to dislike such sad things to see him like that, which could be a good excuse for their personal match just now. "Do you mind if I ask you something personal?"

"What?" Koyomi wondered with an equal expression on her face.

"What would you be if you didn't follow Fate's orders?"

"Then I'd be probably a fan of yours, just dying by simply getting to talk to you under the Martial Arts Tournament in the World Peace Festival." Koyomi said happily, crossing her arms.

"Not to mention probably be among those who would like nothing more but to use a chloroformed handkerchief on me and-"

"Whoa!" Koyomi put a hand on Negi's mouth to stop him from ending that sentence. "I might have been a fan in that reality, but I'm not that crazy."

"You need to meet the whole of my class someday." Negi retorted after removing her hand. As if right on cue, a bright flash emitted from the tall pillar connected to the castle. "Oh, Fate seems to be back. How long have we been here?"

"You were here for fifteen minutes before I came, we fought for thirty-five and the last ten we've talking. Mourning time is over." Koyomi said, looking at her watch. "We ought to get back to the castle. Care to give me a ride?"

"Sure." Negi had his staff come flying on its own to his hand. As they prepared themselves on it, he just had to ask something. "Oh, just wondering. If you… really were to be a fan… would you have been one of those crazy fangirls? Ever… thought about it that way?"

Koyomi merely sighed happily and rubbed his back gently. "What you don't know, Negi-kun, won't hurt you in the future."

Negi left it at that, as they flew back to meet the others.

* * *

"And that brings us up until today." Chachamaru finished the story of Negi's clashes with Fate as the class reached the castle entrance, to be greeted by the rest of the group Fate had assembled. Fate advanced a few paces faster to turn around as they evened out.

"I guess it is time for introductions for all of us here. For all of you who don't know who is who, of course." Fate said as Raziel put down Janos by a table and then whacked him into a state of being awake. Nearly. Fate gestured first to Raziel who was coupled with an attractive blond woman who wore a special pair of glasses. "Raziel and Hannah. They are originally a hit man duo taking jobs for the Magic Council and whoever pays the highest in the local area." Raziel gave gentle bow at the girls, while Hannah nodded her head in response. "Hannah is a specialist in recognition, meaning she can see into the future, which can give us an advantage of knowing when these aliens will come again and where." Then Fate made a notion towards a now fully awake Janos accompanied by a brown haired woman with some striking features in a brown suit mixed together with a white cloak that had a golden crucifix on it. "Janos and Laura. Demon hunters, using the orthodox front guard/spell caster routine to get their missions done and demons killed. Janos is the Ministra Magi, with anti demon bayonets as his artefact."

"Don't worry," Janos seemed to assure them. "My weapons don't kill instantly, but they cause a lot of damage on demons."

"Laura on the other hand, is a skilled healer, using mainly healing and heavy artillery spells to her disposal." Fate finished for the magic demon hunter. He then gestured to a familiar gentleman with a hat. "Some of you might recognize Wilhelm Josef Von Herrmann. Don't let his appearance fool you. He is actually a count demon, of whom I have worked with earlier."

"Pleased to meet you." Wilhelm took off his hat and bowed at them. "I hope there will be nothing troubling you this time as we will work together." He noticed Natsumi staring at him weirdly. "Is something wrong?"

"Bad man." Natsumi responded at him, catching Wilhelm by surprise. He noticed his employer eyeing regarding the last time he was at Mahora.

"Ojou-chan, I do apologize for last time, but I assure you that last time I was only doing my job. This time, I will not do anything hostile towards you. Is that fine?" Wilhelm said gently.

Natsumi didn't seem to back off at first, but when Chizuru put a hand on her shoulder, Natsumi nodded back at him.

Ignoring the tension between the two of them, Fate gestured to the group's final new member of the group. "Kagetarou of Bosporos. Like Goodman, a shadow user but eschewing summoning in favour of direct combat. He's not the friendly sort." The souei jutsu user merely grunted at response for them to catch his meaning.

"Everyone!" A distant voice called to them. The girls spotted Negi flying towards them along with a cute cat girl behind him. Negi was waving to them. To the senior's surprise, he had that little bag he had been given from Fashtar tied to the staff's larger part, which was the rear end for the moment.

"Negi-kun!"¨

"Aniki!"

Negi-sensei!" They shouted back to him, Ayaka the most prominent shouter.

"Negi!" Asuna shouted to him, waving happily at him before sending a glare of _**DOOM**_ towards him, giving him shivers.

"Great to see you all again." Negi said as he flew above them along with Koyomi. He had stopped right above them, for some odd reason.

"And great to see you out of bed, Negi-kun." Asakura said, looking up at him like the others did. "Weren't you supposed to have a broken leg?"

"Ahem." Laura caught their attention.

"Oh, right. Healer. Forgot." The reporter girl said, putting a hand on the back of her head to apologize.

"Is there a reason why you're still airborne, Negi-sensei?" Setsuna asked her little teacher, who turned stiff for a moment, and tried to laugh nervously. Setsuna took a look at Asuna, who seemed a bit quiet while eyeing him. She was grinning to herself quite widely. "Ah."

"Neeegiiii…" Asuna said in a gentle tone, almost seductively, but the tapping of her foot gave it away for what it really was. "I'm not going to hurt you, really. Come down please."

_Wilhelm tried his best not to laugh out loudly._

"Are you certain, Asuna-san?" Negi responded nervously to his aunt. Best keep the blood relation a secret for now. "You always hit me for doing stupid things."

"Not this time, Negi. I'm not mad at you." The redheaded pigtailed girl said back at him, having her eyes closed to him. She opened them again. "Neg…" If this was an anime, the spot where Negi and Koyomi were would have blinked. Imagine that right now: Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing! "Hey!" Asuna shouted loudly. Wilhelm couldn't keep it in any longer.

"There they are!" Mei yelled, eyeing the two on the staff flying away from them.

"Thank you, Mei-chan!" Asuna yelled back, taking off a shoe and tossing it straight at them. Koyomi spotted the shoe and dodged it. Negi on the other hand, didn't. And as he was steering the staff, they had trouble getting the staff back into proper flying mode, eventually crashing into the castle wall and falling down. "EH?" Asuna didn't mean for that to happen. If anybody didn't notice, the bag tied to the staff snapped loose from its hold.

"Iiiiiyaaaaaaa!" Koyomi screamed as she and Negi were falling deadweight down to the floor below. "WHAT THE HELL!?" She screamed at whoever threw that shoe and hit Negi in the back of the head.

"We got to save them!" Yuuna said loudly as she accompanied by Setsuna, Kotarou, Ayaka and Kaede rushed to catch their teacher before they hit the ground. For the record, he felt a bit dizzy by the hit. Before they could reach them, Negi and Koyomi both stopped just above the ground, before completing the fall down. The staff followed shortly.

"Uh, thanks, Fate." Asuna said as she had seen the white haired mage cast a wind forth to stop them from falling. _I can't believe I just said that._

The bag fell down very quickly as well. It smashed against the Roman concrete floor and breaking sunder. For being such a small bag, it held a lot of things. Several small things came out of the bag as it hit the ground. Small figurines, an eyepatch, another bag, this one square and made in leather, about a dozen small dark brown rods that could be passed for rusty metal colour and finally and most surprising, a scabbard in a special belt for going around the waist with a sword in the scabbard. The scabbard slides a small distance before ending at Negi and Koyomi's feet.

"Huh?" First Negi said it while Koyomi kept quiet.

"Bwah?" The guys said, excluding a wide eyed and stunned Fate.

Finally, the entire resort (at least the castle part) echoed with a very loud "EEEEHHHH!?"

**

* * *

A/N: Finally we're getting on to the juicy parts. I love plot items, they always give you some help in making a good story. Now, I'm going to have a break for a while, but I will write next chapter, I promise. Until then, feel free to have your own ideas about the magic bag's contents. I won't spoil anything. **


	13. Bag of treats, indeed!

**A/N: I'm back!****Did you miss****me? I bet you did. The computer got hit by a virus and I was unable to use the Internet for a few days. Hence the break. I was lucky to post the last chapter really. Plus, I was introduced to Zettai Karen Children, a very good manga. (Won't show up here though) Onwards!**

* * *

"Okay, let me get this straight." Chamo said, sitting on the table where they had placed the items from the bag, looking straight at Negi and Yue (who had first gotten the bag from Fashtar). "After you were poisoned and unconscious by this Fashtar fellow, Yuechi got a 'small bag of treats' for Aniki from this alien, correct?"

"Yes, that's what he told us." Negi responded. He was really nervous because almost everyone was looking at him and Yue.

"And the reason you didn't open the bag before is…?" Fate asked standing next to the teacher.

"Yue-san tried to open the bag at first and it didn't work, so we thought there was a heavy enchantment on it."

"And…?" Asuna added in for either of them to answer.

"Every time I tried to open it with a spell, it would backfire on me." Yue responded weakly, but they could hear her answer.

"And…?" Evangeline added as well.

"We thought it would be a trap." Both of them said at the same time, looking down at the floor in shame.

"Can't really exclude that last one…" Kazumi remarked, putting a hand on her chin, looking at Ayaka who looked back.

"One can never be too careful." Kaede piped in.

"Alright, you two are forgiven for this one, at least." Eva said, much to the two magi's relief.

"Hold on. What do you mean, 'this one, at least', Master?" Negi had to look at her face.

"I said that you lot are forgiven for not knowing about the bag. You still have to face a proper Asuna beating, Boya." Eva said grinning to herself as two hands put themselves on Negi's shoulders. "Hold on. There's another one who wants to give you a lesson too."

_Oh, bugger._

_**Roughly ten minutes later, after a severe beating in the other room…**_

"Sorry about that." Asuna said as she and Chisame stepped into the main hall again, dragging Negi between them. "It took some time to get him to understand what we felt."

"Yes…" Eva remarked, still grinning, on the verge of laughing. "We could hear your ranting all the way here."

"Well, with that little thing out of the way, shall we focus on these items?" Yue said, referring of course to the items left by Fashtar for them.

It was a peculiar collection. There was a dozen small wands of dark brown colour, seven figurines, all imaging dragons. But in comparison to the dragons that are on Earth, these were quadrupeds, and had their wings on the back and not being part of the front limbs. On top of that, the heads on each of them was different from the other, making each figurine a different kind of dragon apart from its fellows. An eye patch with nothing decorative in particular, only that it was in quality leather. And finally, there was the sword in the scabbard. It had not been drawn out of its hold yet.

"This is very odd." Chamo said, taking a close look at one of the figurines up close. "Why would this guy be giving these things away?"

"Either he thought he would like to give us a fair chance with these…" Ayaka said, holding a wand.

"…or he is an utter idiot to give away things like a charity." Eva finished.

"How do we know at all if these things are magical?" Misa asked. Being appointed new magic apprentice, since she wanted to use magic, she didn't have much knowledge about things like these.

"We vampires are magic in nature." Eva said, standing next to Raziel to bring home the point. "Like most magical beings, we are able to feel magic energy that can be found in magi and magic items. And believe me that in a couple of hours, the amount of magic these things pulsate at their rate will make me sick." She finished that with a hint of disgust on her face, looking directly at the items laid out on the table.

"So, we can ascertain that these items are powerful in their own right?" Fate inquired as he had picked one of the figurines for himself, taking a closer look as well. Unbeknownst to him, Sakurako had also picked one up to look at.

"Well if we are to be certain, we ought to give these things a test run. Might as well start now." Asuna said.

"Personally, I'd like to have a look at that." Setsuna referred to the sword that was laid in the centre of the collection. She went and picked it up and noticed something peculiar immediately. "It's… very light for being such a heavy looking blade."

"Let me." Wilhelm gestured for Setsuna to hand him the sword still stuck in the scabbard. When receiving, he tossed it between his hands to check its balance. "This is very well made. It could be centuries old and still feel like it was made only yesterday."

"How can you tell?" Kotarou asked him.

"I've used swords in the past, when it was the prime weapon of the time. I stopped using them when they became outlawed to use in public." The elder demon responded. "I think this Fashtar meant that Negi-kun should use it." He tossed it over to Negi, who caught the sword like it was nothing.

"It feels nice in my hands." Negi said as he stroked the shaft with his hands. "Okay, I'm not going to make this one of the, epic 'drawing the sword out of the scabbard', so make sure you watch, since I'm going to pull it out fast."

"Hey everyone, you hear that!?" Yuuna called for them to turn their eyes towards the boy with the sword in his hands. Giving a mental sigh, Negi pulled the sword out very fast; in fact some of them couldn't see the sheer speed of the drawing.

The sword was unlike anything Negi had seen, or any of them had seen before. The sword was well three foot long, in an oval shape, thus no showing any sharp edges. But the weird thing was the metal it was made of. It was silver, or at least they thought it was silver, because when they took a closer look, the blade appeared almost… liquid. As Negi moved it inch by inch, the sword sung like a crystal ball moving through the air. What's more; unlike the figurines and the wands, this sword was completely undecorated. There were no engravings or runes upon it, no unique distinguishing feature like jewels or any other sort of markings as to who made it. Its dull, blank appearance _was _its distinguishing feature. Likewise with the shaft, as compared to blade which was definitely made in silver, the shaft was only made of bone wrapped in several layers of linen. Despite its shallow appearance, lacking any decoration at all, it still captivated their eyes, in its own way. Evangeline explained that magic from items could be felt by vampires, but this sword's energy could be felt by all, whether if they were magic users or not, veterans as well as novices.

"It's…" Wilhelm, an apparent expert on swords and what purposes they were made for, struggled to find the right word to describe this one. "…beautiful."

"Yes… It, kind of is beautiful." Negi said, as he swayed the blade softly through the air. Everybody who wasn't used to these things was awestruck by the sheer appearance of the sword.

"Why would Fashtar-san give away such a weapon so carefree?" Yue asked out of the blue.

"You put –san on his name?" Someone asked the philosopher mage. It was probably Takane, who was for one being a serious person.

"Oh boy." Chisame said, making them turn their eyes to her. "I've seen this sort of crap video game before. It's the one where you encounter the Big Boss that you fight in the end right at the beginning of the game, and you get this über-powerful item from his collection, be it a weapon, armor, or accessory. But you cannot use it until you've reached a certain level; otherwise the item is just useless as you progress. Then, as you reach the boss at the end, you use this item which is the only thing that can hurt him and it all ends with the Boss' death or other kind of defeat and you've saved the world, as usual."

_**Oh, look: A bunny!**_

"_Is it me…" _Negi asked telepathically to anyone that would listen. _"…or does that actually make sense in some way?"_

"_Who knows… maybe it is partially true?"_ Asuna responded back to him.

"Well, that could be one possibility." Ayaka said, trying to maintain a more suitable stance for herself. "But no matter, I just need to say this: You do look wonderful with that sword in hand, Negi-sensei." Of course, that compliment made him drop some sweat and the other girls just tried to not mind the meaning she said it with.

"Um…" Tamaki, the horned girl of Fate's Ministra looked at Asuna and pointed a finger at the class representative. The redhead whispered in the horned girl's ear to explain the situation regarding the beautiful blond girl's little complex. "Aha."

"Ooh, now you mention it, Iinchou, I need to take a picture." Kazumi took out a camera and took the picture of Negi with the sword in hand. Another click came from somewhere, leaving them confused. Unbeknownst to them, Chachamaru had also taken a picture and stored it in her personal database.

"Do you mind if I try it, Negi-sensei?" Setsuna asked Negi, and the latter turned over the sword to the Hanyou. Taking a few paces away from the others, she positioned herself with the blade in her two hands in front of her like it was a Katana. Slowly, she moved the sword around in what could be best described as a dance of blades. It started off slow, as she handled the sword with elegance and roughness of a true samurai and for every minute, the dance intensified in speed and style. It became also more and more intense for Setsuna as well, as the sword seemed to correspond with her movements and the circular twists that she performed every twenty seconds, allowing more and more audacious movements for her to use. Gradually, she stopped, out of breath and kneeling down with the sword in front of her and her eyes closed. It didn't take long for the cheering to start, catching her off guard and leaving her a bit flushed.

"Woooooh! You were great, Setsuna-san!"

"Who knew you were that good with a sword?"

"Secchan, you're the best!" That last comment came from Konoka, definitely, making her blush even more.

"T-t-t-t-this is nothing for me." Setsuna stammered out, moving up the blade in front of her face. "I practiced every day since I was six, so that I could do my job given by the dean more effectively." She noticed that Asuna was smirking at her, ignoring the blade in front. "What?"

"Liar." Asuna accused her directly, reminding her instantly. "That was the sword dance you and I have worked together on for these past few months so that you could impress Kono-chan enough so you two could-"

"ASUNA-SAN!" Setsuna was immediately on her best friend, charging her into the wall. The blow rendered the redhead a bit dizzy, but it didn't knock her out. "I suggest humbly that if you want to keep your pigtails on your person, you might want to keep your mouth like a baby seal with a fish in its mouth." She whispered, but nearly everyone could hear it, having deadpan looks on their faces. Konoka was not among them, being completely confused about the situation. Asuna on the other hand noticed something different since it was close to her face. Literally.

"Um, Setsuna-san, when did you pick up Yuunagi again?" She asked her teacher in Kendo. Setsuna had left her normal sword in the hands of Kaede, so it was odd, especially that she couldn't recall going over to her first. She looked over to the ninja, therefore confirming that Yuunagi was still in Kaede's hands.

"Then, what is this…?" Setsuna looked down at the Nodachi in her hand and glanced over it, looking down at the shaft down at the end. It was the bone shaft in linen. Frightened by the sword's appearance, Setsuna dropped it and stepped back. Asuna stuck as far in to the wall as she could, since she didn't want to lose any toes… again. They're always difficult to put back. But let's not, er…walk into that accident, shall we?

"I thought swords are only supposed to have one shape!" Asuna shouted, after the blade had missed her toes… Phew.

"It depends mainly on what kind of sword you want to begin with." Wilhelm responded. "But of course, magic tends to have its way with normal things…"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I don't want to hear it in detail!" Asuna screamed at the demon. Said demon went to whimper in a corner. (Hey, he just got screamed at for trying to help. Who wouldn't whimper?)

"Hey look!" Mei called their attention back to the sword, which was… well, melting back into its old shape, before Setsuna had used it. Now that is a very odd sight.

_Blades aren't supposed to melt! Even if it's magic, it's too much magic! _This was what Chisame was thinking. _What kind of crappy game is this!?_

"_It's not nice to curse, even if it is mentally." _Fate reminded her telepathically.

"_Shut up, you!"_

"Okay, that thing just… melted in front of our eyes. Are there any records of something like that…?"

_**Girly scream!**_

"Who just screamed!?" Kotarou called out to everyone.

"What just happened!?"

"Sakurako-san!"

Saku-chan! What just happened to-?"

It turned out to be Sakurako who had screamed just then. And she had good reason for it. A very good reason in the shape of a green scaly dragon two thirds the size of a horse with six large horns, two on each side of the head, one on the back on head and the final one at the tip of its nose, quadruped theropod legs and large wings strong enough to lift it, standing right on top of the cheerleader! The girl was practically shaking very quickly due to her proximity to the dragon.

"Where did that thing come from!?" Setsuna called, getting Yuunagi from Kaede. Everyone save Asuna, still stuck in the wall, who had combat experience drew their weapons.

"Wait! What about Sakurako!?" Misa tried to get in their way.

"We'll get her out of there!" Kotarou responded back.

"Everybody, freeze!" Eva called to them, stopping everyone in what they were doing. "We wait for that thing to move first."

"Eva-chan!" Asuna tried to reason with her, but the movements of the dragon made her flinch back to it. The dragon turned its head slowly, taking in the look of everyone standing in front of it. Hearing a slight whimper beneath, it turned its head to see Sakurako lying there, arms stretched out, palms shown off. It noticed that the girl was on the verge of crying, as tears were coming, but then it noticed something on her right hand. It was a small tattoo resembling its own head.

The dragon moved its head closer to Sakurako slowly, making everybody tense more. As soon as its nose horn touched the tip of the cheerleader's nose, Mana cocked her rifle, and Raziel turned on his artefact. The dragon didn't seem to bother and moved its head down Sakurako's chest and it…

…licked her face.

_**Mass Fall Down! The bunny is back! Argh! I need to stop with these but I can't! Damn it you elder sibling! I've gotten your curse! (Irrelevant, just ignore it)**_

"Ewww…" Sakurako complained as she wiped off the saliva with her hands. "That was gross." The dragon stepped away from her, allowing her to move away from the beast. When there was no indication that it would make any hostile movements, Misa and Madoka went in to pick their friend up. But as they touched her, the dragon snarled at them, making them back off at once. "Wait, wait! They're friends of mine!" Sakurako pleaded the beast. It reluctantly backed away.

"How come it obeyed you, Saku-chan?" Konoka asked the cheerleader after a few seconds.

"Eh? You mean you didn't hear his words?" was the reply of the 'Goddess of Luck'.

"What words?" Yue asked this time.

"We didn't hear him say anything at all." Wilhelm said to fill in more confusion.

"Eeh? But I heard him say 'Back Off' to Misa and Madoka." Sakurako retorted, adding more of it to the mix.

"Telepathy…" was the answer Fate came up with.

"What?" The Goddess was confused.

"The dragon is using telepathy. It's simply a way of communicating without having to use your mouth. You just think what you want to say but don't say it and the one who is linked with your mind will pick it up. Simple as that." Is what the white haired magus said.

Sakurako thought about it for a moment. "So it's like thought sharing? We can hear each others' thought by concentrating?"

"Yes, it's like that."

The cheerleader turned to the dragon facing her. "You can understand what I say?" The dragon gave her a nod. "And you can understand what everyone else here says too?" The dragon nodded again. "But you can only talk to them through me, right?" Again, it nodded.

"Okay," Asuna said, picking up another figurine from the table. "Can you tell us about these?"

The dragon nodded at her. Picking up his thoughts, Sakurako began to tell what he was saying through her mind. "The statues are known as Figurines of Wondrous Power. Made out of enchanted materials, such items allow its owner to summon forth a companion to use within a limited time. It could a mount, some sort of scouting or even a battle companion."

"So why are they resembling dragons in the first place? That's got to be some high level magic on its own." Haruna asked the dragon.

"This is going to be a bit complicated. Dragons with flight existed among the figurines' creators a long time ago, before going extinct. But using some sort of forbidden magic, they managed to trap the spirits of the dragons within these figurines and now the spirits are bound to serve whoever summons forth them. Well, that's pretty much their history in a nutshell." The cheerleader explained to the others.

"How do we know who summons them in the first place?" Misa asked, completely confused about all this.

Sakurako looked at her friend first then turned to the dragon. "Wait, what? … He said, look at my hand…" That was when Sakurako first noticed the tattoo of the dragon on her right hand. "He just told me that this tattoo is proof that he is summoned by me…" Sakurako said, trying to not act all panicky. "How do I get this thing off?"

"Maybe the same way you summoned him?" Konoka wondered.

"Yeah, how did you summon him in the first place?" Misora finally spoke up.

"I don't know, I just thought it would be cool if… wait, thought… I thought you out of the figurine, didn't I? She asked the dragon, which nodded in response. "Um, okay…" She concentrated on turning the dragon back. While her eyes were closed, the others noticed how the green dragon began to glow slightly greener than it was, before turning into a gray mist that focused into a dense area above Sakurako's hand. And when she opened her eyes again, a jade figurine in the dragon's shape was in her palm and the tattoo was gone.

"Okay, at least now we know what the figurines are for." Koyomi said.

"These are certainly dangerous." Shirabe spoke up. "Not to mention high level magic."

"You don't suppose Fashtar gave us these because he wanted to meet us again, do you?" Chamo said.

"If that was not the case, then I'd have been a badger stuck in a shower for five with a pointy hat on my head." Chisame said sarcastically.

"Okay, let's recap: We have a special magic sword that can shape itself into any other kind of sword type…" Asuna started, counting the things on her fingers.

"As far we know, only swords." Setsuna said to add in more info.

"…Figurines of Wondrous Power that can transform into dragons at a thought's whim and several wands to use. What reason is there for him to not give us them unless he wants to meet us?" Asuna finished, having stepped away from the wall and picking up the silver sword. It had turned itself in a smaller version her own great sword.

"Who was it that asked if there were any records of swords like that before?" Madoka asked, having calmed down from the previous calamity.

"Never mind that. But I doubt we can get info regarding these things at all." Yue said, not bothering with getting out her artefact.

"Hold on a minute." Chisame said, making everybody stop what they were discussing about and look at her. "Why don't we ask that Colonel guy? Maybe he knows something about these?"

Several more experienced girls put their fist in their palm at the notion. Surely Colonel Sanders would know about these items.

"Well we could always ask that guy when we get out of here. But not now." Eva said smirking.

"Why is that?" Chizuru asked the little vampire, seeing the vampire in a new light.

"It's because we're going to be stuck here until tomorrow. We can't leave for 24 hours once we've entered."

"Oh. Oh dear." The more, ahem, busty female responded bluntly.

"Oh well, we came here to train, didn't we?" Eva said with her trademark grin and posture. "So let's get to it, shall we? We got a meeting with a high level boss soon."

_And I who thought they didn't take the video game thing seriously. _If you don't know who thought this, you need to be hit on the head with something big and blunt.

* * *

Everyone had spent the following hours until sunset in the resort practicing their chosen path. Ayaka had been designated as a fighter including Mana and Zazie, the quiet girl in class. But due to their inexperience compared to the others, the two were made guard wings like Madoka, being put there until they got better. Mana on the other hand was centre guard, being in the middle of attention in the heat of a battle whenever they were in close combat. Misa, Sakurako, Chizuru and Misora, have been made magi in the much larger group, granted the fact that Misora was already one. When given the choice of what kind they were to be, Chizuru picked the defensive mage, specializing in creating shields, having little combat magic on her own. Sakurako, due to the fact that no one else had it, was the enhancer, which meant that she could use her own magic energy (if she had any) to boost others. Misa was going be under Yue's tutelage as a normal mage. Without the spell books.

Night had fallen upon the resort now, and most were turning in for the night whilst Chisame and Haruna along with Asuna were returning late from the castle's hot springs. They had their pyjamas provided by the castle maids on since they were going to sleep straight away.

"At least I can't deny that the baths here are great." Chisame said stretching her arms upwards.

"Yes, Eva-chan got a pretty nifty place for us to use sometimes." Haruna added to the flavour of the place for them to listen.

Asuna just groaned instead, seeing the negative sides of the situation. "Only now we got to share them with Fate and his gang… Not to mention today was worse than usual. Sure, Fate was nice to the others since they were new, but us?"

"Don't remind me. I'm going to erase that copy I got of him." Haruna said. "And I don't think Shirabe was happy about our meeting in Ostia…"

"I heard that cat girl talk to sensei about something." Chisame said, having an image of them in her head. "They seemed to be on good terms together."

"Now you mention it, what were they doing together when we saw Negi-kun again?" Haruna wondered as they were closing in the library door that stood slightly open with a faint blue light on from inside. "You don't say…"

"No, they certainly didn't that if that's what you're thinking!" Chisame shouted at the mangaka.

"Hey, shh." Asuna shushed the both of them. "Look at that." She pointed to the light from the library. The three girls went quiet and opened the door enough for them to enter, returning then the door to its former state. The blue glow attracted them to a large area within the library. Inside, they found Fate floating in the air, surrounded by books and scrolls, all giving off the glow. The white haired mage had his eyes closed, and while he was in this state, the silver sword that they found earlier in the destroyed bag, floated around him, taking on several different shapes of swords versions found on Earth, and then it had also at least once, taken on the shape of an axe. Books were open and scrolls flew sporadically, several lines written in those pages and papyrus came out of them, thus the blue glow, and went into Fate's open mouth as he floated there, unaware of the girls' presence.

"Whoa…" Haruna said in awe of the white haired magus' power.

"To think he was this good…" Chisame said, adjusting her glasses.

"So this is how he learns things. He just soaks it up and then he knows it instantly." Asuna puffed, wishing mentally for herself that she could study that way.

"This just screams fantasy if you ask me…" Chisame said.

"But it's so convenient if you ask me. We got to get serious too." Haruna said, walking away from the scene. "Huh?" She noticed something large but faint due to the poor lighting. "Hey take a look at this."

From the lighting they did get, they saw a large wooden box, large enough for a person to fit into easily. From what they could see, there were inscriptions and symbols all over it in some ancient language, the edge where the lid could click into had the most, having the language written down. It seemed Middle Eastern for them, but they couldn't identify the language or where it supposedly originated. But the more they looked at it, the more of a coffin it reminded them.

"Is that a, coffin?" Chisame said, polishing her glasses to ensure that she isn't seeing wrong. Shame it didn't work.

"When was it here?" Asuna wondered, standing a good distance away.

"Wait… You don't suppose…" Chisame started, but it died off.

"Oh, you mean…" Asuna nodded her head in the direction to where Fate was.

"One way to find out." Haruna started off to the coffin, but she seemed walk into something hard, since she stopped two meters away from the large coffin. "Owie…"

"A barrier." Asuna said, this time walking past the mangaka. "Nothing I can't handle." That was true, but when she tried to open the coffin, the lid wouldn't budge at all. Unbeknownst to them, the glow had died off. "What's with this, I can't seem to open it…" Asuna said.

"First outer defence is an Ancient Dragon level barrier, with access only given to select few, but in this case only to the administrator of the barrier." Fate Averruncus said as he came from behind, giving all three girls a shock. "Second defence is a custom made lock that covers the entire lid from the inside that can only be unlocked with a special key." He held up a small plate with a religious figure on it, one that they didn't recognize. "And if you managed to unlock it, the third and final defence is a special question in another language to which only the owner has been given and can change if the correct password is given. Otherwise, you can't access it."

"You trying to tell us something, Fate?" Haruna said, fixing her glasses.

"In fact, yes. Get away from that. You'd rather not see me in a bad mood." In almost an instant, Asuna stepped away from the coffin.

"Something tells me you got a secret to hide." Chisame said, stepping away from him.

"The coffin is no secret at all, but it's what in the coffin that I'd rather have you not see." The white haired magi responded back to the net idol.

"But why did you take it here in the first place?" Asuna wondered aloud. Fate didn't answer that. He just… melted into water and the pool was just left there, with no reaction at all for at least fifteen seconds. After that, they concluded that he had left the library. "I think I hit a nerve there…" Asuna said.

"You think?" Chisame said sarcastically.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the same edge where Negi and Koyomi had their sparring match earlier that day in the resort, Evangeline seemed to be in deep thought. Although she hid it well from the others, she couldn't deny to herself that there was something familiar with that sword that Fashtar had left them. Its own magic energy was identical to something else she had felt before. But centuries has a heavy toll on memories. The signature of the blade was familiar, but she couldn't remember clearly.

Also, among the dragon figurines, she had snatched the one made of enhanced ice. From what the moonlight could tell her, this dragon was also quadruped with legs similar to the green one earlier, but having a fiercer look to it. This dragon had no horns, but a large fin made out of scales, not to mention that the scales were sharp, giving this dragon more of a bladed close combat approach if it preferred melee in certain times. _If Shiina thought it forth, then… _Eva held out the figurines and glared at it. "Come forth."

The figurine of ice glowed and shifted into two streams of magic. The first one struck the ground, the other struck her hand. It was the stream that would make the tattoo. The first one had successfully transformed into a large white dragon that had a chromatic detail to it, with large sapphire blue eyes. It had its eyes on her. Eva returned the stare and held up the tattoo for it to see. "I summoned you; therefore I am your master. Do you obey?"

As the spell binds it to listen, the dragon bowed its head to her. _"I do obey, Master."_

"Good. Your previous owner was kind enough to leave me with this gift. From now on, you belong to me. I will use you as a weapon and as a steed. You will be my primal usage as my own magic is sealed away, and in return, I will protect you in any way I am able." Eva informed the white beast.

"_Whatever you ask of me, Master. Furthermore, there seems to be someone here for you."_

"I know." Eva said and turned around to see a large rock that was part of the mountain edge. "I know it's you, Averruncus. Come out of there." In return, the rock cracked, and a humanoid body came out of it, slowly turning its colours from ordinary rock to Fate. "Did you bring it with you?"

"Yes, I did." Fate took out the silver sword. "I do wonder why you had me test it all the way out here. Shouldn't you bring Negi-kun for this?"

"Oh no. This is something he wouldn't last five seconds for, even with his level." Eva gestured for her dragon to position itself next to her. "Besides, he wouldn't have the right attitude. Don't you agree on that, Averruncus?"

The silver sword in response, melted onto Fate's arms, turning it into two separate blades, connected by a thin line of silver in between. The blades had hardened themselves on his hand giving the impression that he really had two weapons, having a serrated look to them, making the cuts they give more serious damage than what most people would believe. (1) "Yes, he wouldn't have it."

The dragon moved in first against Fate, attempting to bite him, but the construct moved past it with a shundou, going directly against the vampire. Eva used her strings to pull him away back to the dragon, but Fate managed to cut the strings. Using the momentum of the dragon that charged against him, Fate leaped upwards, landing eventually back on his feet a few meters away from his two opponents. Eva's dragon gave off an ice breath, making the construct flee his current location. But the vampire was on to him already, giving a good punch to his chest, making him fly away from her. To prevent falling off the edge, Fate set the two blades he had on his hands into the rock ground, breaking his flight. "It seems the limiter I released from you gave you more power than expected."

Eva shifted her arms, giving them a good swing while the dragon positioned itself behind her, shielding her body with its right wing. "Well, you seem to last longer than what I expected myself. Your turn."

Fate didn't do a shundou, but instead took it easy at first, rushing first at her and the dragon. Ten meters away from the two monsters, he leaped into the air, changing the sword, giving the right hand back its old shape, while the left hand formed itself into a shield protecting him from thigh to neck. Eva merely laughed and prepared her fists for this one.

_The armoured man with the stench of vampire blood on his hands came ever closer to her as the fires in the forest grew more intense._

Eva suddenly felt a great pressure in her chest, reacting sluggishly to Fate's assault, but just as the construct was going to strike, she moved away, rolling to the left from the dragon's protection, as the dragon rolled himself to avoid being hit by the sword. _What was that, just now? It felt so…familiar. _Eva dodged Fate's onslaught with the sword and shield. But the more she watched him with the chosen style, the more pictures of that forest battle she remembers that year. More importantly, it is of that lone fighter, that took her on and two others. _I need to be more certain of it. _But her thoughts led her a bit astray, giving Fate a chance to make a small cut on her arm.

Okay, that hurt. A lot. She didn't scream, but the pain caused by the blade was enough for her to do so. _Just as I thought! _As Fate moved again, Eva just threw him over her shoulder, having him fall down to the ground next to her, and then pinned his arms so he couldn't move. Fate took this as a sign that this little fight was over.

"Well?" The white haired mage asked as he lay beneath the vampire. The dragon walked to her side, wondering about the situation.

"It is just as I thought, Averruncus. The sword is familiar to me. Or at least the sword type." Eva let go of him, so he could stand up. "Dragon, go back." She commanded the beast, and it turned likewise like the green dragon earlier into mist and gathered into her hand. "I think I will name this one… Kpúo." She commented as it turned back into the ice figurine. (2)

"Well, what do you know about the sword yourself?" Fate wondered, having the blade returning to its old shape.

"Gather everyone while they're asleep into the main hall, I can put on a show for them." The vampire responded. Fate merely melted into water as he did earlier in the library. Eva merely stood in her place, and before she had known it, Kpúo had come out again, this time offering to give her a ride back to the castle. "To castle Lebens Schult."

* * *

Fate and Raziel carried everybody quietly into the main hall, where they had first gathered up a heap of futons to sleep on. Fate handled the small ones, whilst Raziel handled the big ones. More mature looking to be more precise. Evangeline's maids drew a magic circle as the vampire came in, riding Kpúo. The mighty dragon ruffled his head before lying down so his new master could get down on the floor.

"That's everyone." Raziel reported, giving a salute to the Shinso.

"We're ready to start." Fate said.

"Not yet." Eva said, confusing both the construct and the vampire. She blew some dust (3) on them and, before they knew it, the two guys were asleep and fell down on the heap of people in the circle. "You also need to see this. It's not everyday you get to see my past." Kpúo merely faded back into his figurine form as Eva began to hover above the people on the futons, stretching out her arms to make a spell.

« Lic Lac La Lac Lilac Mater Musarum, Mnemosyne! Ad Se Me Alliciat! »

**A/N : For those willing to discuss the notes with me or willing to submit OCs to this if they want to, I got a new Skype name for you to track me. It's githlord7 so if you want to chat with me regarding this story, you're free to do so. Please, call me Kurush whilst there.**

**1 Think of the weapons that the Demon Hunters have in Warcraft III. That's what the sword looks like now.**

**2 Kpúo translates directly from Greek as "Cold".**

**3 Ever heard the tune, "Mr Sandman" before? You get the main idea.**


	14. Eva's encounter with the Blade of Change

**A/N: Now, this should be a short one with just Eva's past, and the introduction of my own big OC. I do like music when I write and you should listen to some as well. May I recommend Lunatica's album "Fables & Dreams" to start with?**

* * *

"_This isn't what I dreamt about…" Negi said to himself as he found himself suspended in mid-air above a forest in Europe, sometime in autumn. If there was a wind, he wouldn't feel it at all. He was too high to see if there were any leaves flying about. It didn't seem like there were anything violent going on. "Where am I?"_

_"Negi, don't speak or you'll wake up... Konoka..." Asuna said as she woke up as well in astral form too. "Hold on… what is going on here?"_

"_I suppose I could tell you now that you're both awake." Fate's voice frightened the two royalties, making them float away from him slightly. "…What?"_

"_How come that you are wearing clothes in astral form, Fate?" Asuna asked him, as apart from Negi and Asuna being naked in their astral form, Fate on the other was fully dressed with a mantle that goes around his shoulders above his normal clothing. Even his sneakers were on._

"_To be honest with you, Kagurazaka Asuna, I do not know. Every time I enter my astral projection, I have this outfit on me." The white haired mage responded to her question._

"_Negi, we seriously need an upgrade." The redhead with bells said bitterly looking at her nephew._

"_**Are you done chatting yet?"**_ _Eva's voice called to the trio above the forest. __**"If you wonder where the others are, they are seeing the same thing, only not with you. Makes things easier for me to keep an eye on you."**_

"_Eva-chan! What is going on here?" Asuna demanded of the vampire who was not there._

"_**I'm going to be blunt on this one. You know the sword from the bag? I've seen its kind before…" **_

_Of course that information shocked the two royalties like mad. Fate didn't seem surprised at all, as he learned it previously._

"_**Allow me to enlighten you. The year is 1723. Around that time, the various vampire Lords and Dark Mistresses was running out of soldiers due to wars amongst themselves and against the vampire hunters that roamed the lands. In September that year, all the Lords and Mistresses agreed to hold a special meeting regarding putting aside their differences and join together to form a Dark nation of vampires. The meeting point was at this forest, just outside Castle Frankenstein. (**__**1**__**)**_

_An explosion occurred west of their position, and then the three were forcibly cast into the woods at a high speed. Various fires came up as explosions came up, tossing people, or vampires to be more precise for that matter._

"_**Unfortunately, the vampire hunter groups caught news of this meeting and they banded together in an attempt to prevent this nation from rising."**_

"_Hold on." Fate interrupted her story. "I've read about your journeys, Evangeline-san. You didn't bother with the politics of vampires or humans through the years. How come that you were here in the first place?"_

"_**That doesn't really matter at all right now." **__Eva's answer was blunt and she didn't sound happy about the question either. As the three progressed through the forest, signs of battle started to show everywhere. Whole, fractured bodies seemed to represent that of the dead vampire hunters, and piles of charred bones and ash symbolized where vampires had been killed where they stood. "__**What does matter is what I faced there in the forest."**_

_Eventually, the three reached where Evangeline was. She was in a teen form, with a body to match Misa's at least. Along with her was about seven other vampires, all but one of the same heights. The short one for that matter seemed to be about thirteen years old, but with vampires, that's probably how he looked when he was turned. Like Fate, he had white spiky hair, but his clothing was more… military. He wore the neat uniform of the Caroleans (__2__), the big blue great coat with yellow cuffs, blood red eyes, and to finalize it, he had the large rapier of the same soldiers whose uniform he wore. Unlike the rapiers of modern day, this one was made sturdier, so it couldn't break off when he used in battle. The others were both male and female, using several weapons of their own choice. One of them, a man with a handsome beard and flowing hair had chosen to wear half-plate armor; the parts that didn't have plating were protected by chain mail. He had a bloodied broadsword in his right hand, after having killed a vampire hunter._

"_Alright, we've driven them from this part of the woods at least. Should we head for the castle?" A female asked, standing next to the teenage Eva, holding a rapier and hand pistol in her hand._

"_We could gain the advantage if we reach the castle, but it's likely that they are there as well." The man in half plate armor responded. "Whoever planned this was a genius."_

"_No." Eva said, drawing the attention onto her. "Any fool could have planned an attack on us. But since there were several leaders of them here, at least one of them would have the idea of securing the area around us. Think about it, the tactics they used, the individual anti vampire weapons they had… they got a good tactician and logistician on their side."_

"_I reckon that such a guy is in the back, overlooking us." The short one mentioned, giving off a smirk. "Give me some time to find him and I'll bring him here. Humans can only grovel when they're about to die."_

"_Must you talk like that? You're getting bolder with each passing week." Eva scolded him and he seemed to frown upon hearing it from her._

"_What's wrong with that? To me, humans are nothing more but food for us." The short one said with a confident smirk._

"_Don't be an idiot." The man in armor replied to that. "Humans are more numerous than us, and they progress more swiftly than us. And they breed like rabbits. We vampires exist to be their dark side, thinning the human herd when we _need_ to, not when we want to. We kill them, they kill us and it's an even balance."_

"_More over-" The one standing next to Eva started, but she sensed something coming fast towards them. "Get down!"_

_Everybody threw themselves to the ground, as a twirling silver weapon in the shape of a crescent moon flew over their heads, cutting anything it came into contact with. It cut a part of the armoured vampire's mantle that symbolized that he was a Dark Lord, and went into a tree, which it cut down just as easy as it was to ride a bike. It also went through Asuna's stomach, sending her two companions a bit worried about her condition. Mental for that matter._

"_Are you okay, Asuna?"_

"_Are you in pain?"_

"_Guys. Do I have a red line showing where that thing went through me?" The redhead asked them._

_Fate inspected the area. "No."_

"_Good." Then the princess fainted._

"_What was that?" The vampire in Carolean uniform wondered as they all rose up._

"_Don't know, but that thing was definitely not your average vampire slaying tool." The one in armor said._

"_Where did it- IT'S COMING BACK!" Eva screamed as she threw herself to the ground again, followed by the others save one, the female that used to stand next to her. The crescent moon weapon went right through her neck. It didn't take long before she turned to a pile of ash and bones. Not long after that, they spotted someone walking towards them. In Eva's eyes, he was about the same height as her, but he was bulkier and stockier than them. He held the crescent moon weapon in his hand, and holding a plain look on his face, as if killing didn't seem to bother him._

"_Who the hell are you?" The Carolean asked the newcomer._

"_A hit man for the likes of you." The newcomer responded back. The short vampire couldn't help but laugh in his face._

"_ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Said vampire rushed at the human who had killed his comrade, intending to use his rapier to the fullest._

"_You can't be more than a decade old." The human said calmly, and before anyone could see it, the Carolean vampire had been trapped in silver chains that fitted like a whip, since there was a small weight down at the end that was thrown. The wielder turned out to be the human, who used the vampire's own weight against him, swinging him around high in the air, before slamming him hard against a tree, leaving the boy vampire's body broken for at least several minutes. "Your boldness gave it away. You're a new turn compared to the others. You only got a decade on you; maybe less since you became a vampire." He retracted the silver whip chain away from the injured vampire before turning to the others._

"_Wait." The armoured vampire managed to halt the solo vampire hunter. "I've heard of you. You're that Lone Paladin (__3__) that wiped out the vampire clan up in Hungary, aren't you?"_

"_What of it?"_

"_I went there after I heard of the attack. You seemed to always spare just one vampire. Why?" the armoured vampire wondered._

_The human hunter closed his eyes for a moment there. "I believe in balance, like you. I heard you talk about it. I spared that vampire girl in Hungary so that she would have a chance of rebuilding. You kill us and we kill you. It's a fair trade."_

"_That may be, but why a little new turn as the sole survivor?"_

"_That way, the Church wouldn't suspect anything. Besides, she needed to learn how to hunt for herself." The Paladin responded to that._

"_You just like screwing with the Church and us vampires, don't you?" Teen Eva accused him._

"_No, I don't." the Paladin responded to that and he charged at the whole group at the same speed that they could move on. Even for being an experienced vampire hunter, that speed was surprising, given his own age, which was presumed to be in fifties or early sixties._

"_Wha-?" Evangeline said as the Paladin managed to slip past the broadsword of her armoured companion, and then in one swift movement, he crushed the vampire's windpipe. Even an undead would need to breathe if he had lungs like a human. Then, about a second later, he appeared in front of two others, and gave them swift cuts with some kind of claw weapons. Seconds later, blood sprayed from their faces where they were cut. The other pair of vampires was fast enough to bash the Paladin up against a tree, only the knight managed to get a grab on the tree trunk with his legs._

"_Hey! That's unfair using that!" The Carolean vampire cried out to the Paladin, but he paid no attention to him. He twirled his hands around, which was clad in silver clawed they didn't see before. As he moved them faster for every second, they could that the silver in his hands changed eventually into a pair of swords, which he held diagonally to each other like an X._

"_He's got amazing control over them." Fate noted for the other two that were with him._

"_He's got two of them!?" Asuna bellowed out next to him. There was something else to it. Like the one that Negi received, the two swords had a dull appearance with one key exception: at the bottom of the shaft was a small chain attached to it holding a small medal with unknown writing on it._

"_I got to get me one of those." The vampire in armor said after a brief moment of silence._

_The Paladin managed to jump into the air from his position on the tree, and raised his right sword into the air, while his left sword changed into a large Aspis shield. Of course, being in an age where digging for artefacts was not very common in the Old World, the vampires were left wondering where he got the idea._

_From the onlookers point of view however, time began to slow down for them. As they watched, time started to freeze as the Paladin had stopped in mid air with his sword raised high and his shield in front of him, obscuring his body from them and showing only his eyes, since he was also wearing a helmet of some kind. They also took a look at Eva's teen body and they instantly recognized the symbols on her arms._

"_She used Magia Erebea on him." Negi said, after flying over to her._

"_She must have won that against the Paladin." Asuna said as well. She took also a good at the Paladin and felt something familiar about him. _Haven't I seen this guy before?

"_**Are you finished taking a look, guys?" **__Eva's voice called to them._

"_How come you stopped the vision?" Asuna asked the vampire. Almost immediately the area began to shine around them, starting with the eyes of the people they saw. It enveloped the whole area before all they could see was white and nothing else._

_**Time to wake up.**_

"Morning everyone." Eva's voice called to them as the class and Fate's team woke up from their dream voyage. It was morning already in the resort and the faint smell of breakfast was in the air. "Sorry about cutting it short, but I'm not one to talk about my past."

"Everyone has their right to privacy." Wilhelm said as the mass rose up from the futons.

"But seriously, how did that fight end?" Kazumi asked the vampire girl, after somehow being accidentally groped by someone. She didn't know who it was, and it was unlikely that whoever it was would step forward.

"Eternal Glacier." Eva said bluntly.

"Ah." Everyone who knew the meaning of that said so.

"Well come on. Breakfast is waiting for us."

_**Following breakfast, a journey to the World Tree Roots and past the really big dragon…**_

"Hmmm…" Albiero Imma hummed as he inspected the items displayed before him on the table. At first he studied the dragon figurines, asking how they were used and got forth the same green one that Sakurako had called forth earlier. Given that he was a master of magic himself, he was quite astonished of these items. But he was really interested in the sword.

"May I?" he asked the others as he picked it up from the table. As soon as the others had stepped to a safe distance, he started off in a more European version of Setsuna's blade dance. It was fast from the start, intensifying for every half minute, having more swings and thrusts. But as he moved the blade, it noticeably changed as well. Imma moved with the sword as it changed, and his movements coped with the magic weapon. When he was finished, the weapon had gone from being a sword to being a Bardiche, a huge axe in which the blade was only connected to the shaft at three points, the bottom, the middle point and the top. "I do recall something like this."

"Where have you seen it before?" Negi asked him as Albiero put down the sword back on the table. Meanwhile, the twins were introduced to Fate, for they at least deserved to know who he really was.

"I remember it vaguely, but I do recall a name at least." Albiero said, handing over a figurine made out of pearl to Negi. "Aristodemus."

"What?"

"Aristodemus. He is an old friend of mine. He and I used to travel together before I joined Nagi in the Great War." Albiero responded calmly.

"I'm going to assume that he is someone important." Asuna said flatly.

"Oh yes, he is actually head of an NGO called the Spartan Hounds. Surely you must have run into them while in the Magic World."

"Spartan Hounds…" Asuna tried her best to remember, repeating the name a few times. "Ah! Setsuna-san! Those were the guys that gave us real trouble fighting!"

"Ah, you're right!" the Hanyou responded, instantly recalling the bounty hunters that engaged them like wolves' packs. "They were really tough back then."

"Hold on, I'll check." Yue said as she summoned her artefact. Looking through the equivalent of Wikipedia, which Chisame did on her note comp, she found what she was looking for. "Here it is: The Spartan Hounds is an NGO that is the same as Ariadne. People who are willing to get stronger is allowed to join and is allowed to use it as he or she wants to, as a bounty hunter, gladiator, or bodyguard. They frown however on assassination and violations against human rights, and work to fight, in the field and politically against it."

Chisame checked the info she found on Wikipedia. "It says here that the Spartan Hounds focuses on aiding war-orphans, giving them proper education and looking after them. They also function as medics on the battlefield, giving an open statement that they are to be left alone and give medical assistance to whoever needs it. But if fired on, they don't hold back apparently."

"Moreover," Yue continued. "They are mostly a loose group, as they do not have any major direction on what to do. Hence the wide selection they have. But apparently, they do have mercenary groups that have some foundations."

"You should be able to find out more information once you get to their main base on the island of Arcadia (4) in the magic world." Albiero said in his gentle voice as always.

"Wait, wait, hold on. The gates there are still being repaired." Asuna said, waving a hand to snap people out of their imaginations of what the magic world was.

"The only one in function is the gate in Ostia." Chisame added more insult to injury.

"And I for one don't want to meet that Godel guy again." Kotarou finished. Those who knew who Godel was nodded in response.

"Well, at the least you could contact him from here." Imma responded to their displeased voices. "There is advanced communications here at Mahora. You just have to ask the dean."

"And then what?" Madoka asked the master.

"We'll wait for a reply."

"Oh yes, I got to wonder, Colonel-san…" Negi asked him. "Why did you give this one made of pearl?"

"Oh I figured that it might suit you. Why don't you try and summon it yourself?" The ever so smiling magi drinking a cup of tea responded.

"Um…okay." Negi went into the open area called forth the dragon in this one. Like the green dragon and Kpúo, this dragon like the rest was four legged, but while the green dragon and Eva's new steed had a chromatic look to their scales, this was more metallic. The scales looked like they were silver, like the sword, and it had larger wings than Kpúo and they had more curves, and the wings had two talons on each tip then the green which they saw had only one talon. This silver dragon had also a beautiful frill at the top of the head, and ended at the base of the neck, having a silver colour towards the body and purple at the edge. The dragon had two beautiful horns which were black at the tip while the rest was silver, pointing up and back from head. In addition, it had a frill at the chin of the head, giving the impression of a goatee. It was the approximate size of a horse and a faint smell of rain came to the humans' noses. "Wow…" Negi's awestruck impression caught the dragon's attention, having the dragon walk towards him.

"_Can you hear me?" _The dragon's telepathic voice ringed in his head like a bell. Negi responded by holding up the hand in which the tattoo. The dragon responded by nudging its face to his own.

"I think she likes me." Negi said with a bit of chuckle.

_She!? _Most of the girls thought so as the dragon nuzzled with her new master.

**

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**A/N: I'm afraid I will have to cut it here, so I can move on to the other parts. Just a little thing to know: I wouldn't mind that you give your personal thoughts about the items and stuff that happens in the story. If you want to, I can continue Eva's past, but I will not continue it at least in the next chapter. Oh yes, regarding the interjections, I'm keeping the bunny at least and the attacks.  
**

**1 Although most people see Frankenstein as the scientist with the monster, there was an actual Frankenstein family that lived in the middle Ages. They were a noble family, having many members of their family buried in Germany. They were eventually wiped out by Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Stoker's Dracula.**

**2 The Caroleans were the elite soldiers of the Swedish Royal Family, established by Charles XI. Their uniform slowly became the uniform for all Swedish troops until the beginning of the 20th century.**

**3 Paladins were just knights in employment to the church and the Pope. In the name of God, being ruthless warriors, they killed anyone who didn't agree with their faith, and yet they managed to uphold the characteristics of war and slaying unbelievers as romantic.**

**4 If you have volume 22, may I refer to the map at the end of it. See the heads of Yuuna and Makie and then look downright until you see a large island south of the city of Tantalus. That is Arcadia in this story, I'm claiming it.**


	15. Fan service in a booth!

**A/N: ****Guys, come on. One review per chapter isn't going to get me, or you, anywhere. Its okay that most of you are anonymous, but even they can give reviews to, I hear.**

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The next day…_

For being a message sent from the magic world, the reply to the request to see Aristodemus came surprisingly fast. The day after they had asked the dean to send a message, the reply came straight away in the girls' dorms' mail box area. Being a resident there, Asuna spotted it after her run with the newspaper. It was a simple letter, being white with red edges and having the symbol of a Lambada in the centre. In neat handwriting next to the symbol, the words 'To Ala Alba' in Latin could be seen clearly. She rushed to her room where the others were finished having their breakfast and cleaning the dorms resided now. "Negi! We got a reply."

_**Cutting it short there...**_

_Good young Negi-kun. _Negi read aloud to the class and Fate's group that had gathered in the classroom to hear the letter. Kotarou, Mei and Takane were there as well.

_You are receiving this letter the day after you sent the request to meet me due to the_

_circumstances you are in. The news of the aliens came quickly to the Magic Council and your_

_submitted picture of the items you received ha__s touched my interest. Therefore, you, the whole_

_class of 3-A, Cosmo Entelecheia and the other members of Ala Alba are invited to the independent_

_state of Arcadia. Consider it as a prestigious school trip, as I have talked to the dean regarding it on_

_the phone and already sent my personal jet. Bring swimsuits and appropriate summer clothing._

_You will spend the following week here, so feel free to shop as you like as well._

_Signed – Aristodemus, Strategou of the Spartan Hounds_

"That confirms it, everyone. We are going to the Magic World." Negi said out loudly as he finished the letter. The girls all cheered happily. This was definitely the mother of all the school trips. It's not everyday you get to go to another world, no matter the purpose.

"We need to pack our stuff." Konoka said happily.

"Oooh! I could use a new swimsuit." Yuuna said, of course, she was referring to her still growing chest.

"Curse your still growing boobs, Yuuna." Makie whispered to herself, being a flat chest herself. "Curse you."

"Oh, I've just thought of something." Kazumi said, eyeing Fate's ministra and grinning evilly.

"Huh?" Haruna noticed and she saw the same idea that Kazumi had her eye on the natives from the magic world. "Oh, yes."

"Why are you looking at us like that?" Koyomi asked, trying to look stern, but in vain.

"Stop it." Homura asked with a bursting vein on her forehead.

"You girls don't have swimsuits on your own, do you?" Kazumi asked them, catching them off guard.

"What?" Shirabe asked stammering.

"This is your first time in the Old world, yes?" Kazumi said with a dark grin on her face and leaning over them. "Then it means you have little to no knowledge about things here work, do you?"

"If you need aid, you just need to ask us, yes?" Haruna joined in on the fun, leaving the girls frightened on their dubbed "Aura of Adult Mischief". "Just leave it to onee-chan…"

"Um… Fate-sama…" Koyomi tried to find comfort in her Magister, only to find that the boys had left the room. "Fate-sama?"

Of course, outside the room, the three guys were standing outside. "How come you dragged us out here, Negi?" Kotarou asked his best friend/rival.

"I just had a really bad feeling that something mind scarring would happen if we stayed in there."

"I don't really care myself." Fate said for himself.

_**NOOOOOOOO! That was Fate's Ministra if you wondered.**_

"I can put this on myself!" Koyomi cried in vain as Haruna, Kazumi and Misa, the official troublemaker ringleaders of the class, clad her in a G-string like bottom piece, with two triangular patches as a top, with strings that went in a loop around her back and neck.

"Don't worry, Koyomi-chan…" Haruna said with the devil's voice whilst adjusting the bottom piece of the cat-girl. "Onee-chan knows best on how to put on a bikini."

"This is not a bikini, this is _floss_!" The cat-girl tried in vain to get them off her. She did however count herself lucky to be cramped inside a booth. Bad news was, the other three were inside with her. And of course the others in her team were having trouble with handling the other girls. "How come you are even inside with me!?"

"To help you with the selection, of course…" Kazumi said in a tone similar to Haruna's. "…And of course, we want to know what you were doing together with Negi-kun."

"Eh? I don't comprehend…" Koyomi asked as they pushed her into the booth wall.

"When we came into the resort, you were flying together with Negi-kun on his staff." Haruna reminded her of the time. "You two were up to something whilst alone, weren't you?"

"Wait, back at the resort?" The cat-girl responded but Misa pushed on the matter more.

"You two didn't do anything adult, did you?" Of course, that question brought a furious blush to Koyomi's face.

"What do you mean by that!?"

"Out with it!" all three girls demanded of the magic girl. Stupid Old World. Can't release personal powers in here.

"We just had a sparring match, that's all." Koyomi said, having enough. "We had a simple match with no magic, special abilities whatsoever."

All three girls were quiet for a short while before Kazumi broke the silence. "That's it? A simple sparring match?"

"Shoot." Haruna said to herself quietly.

"Well, at the end of the match, his hands touched my chest by accident and we talked after…"

"AC-CI-DENT?" Haruna asked bluntly, with her eyes white, and having sharp ends. She was looking straight at Koyomi.

"Ah yes…" the cat-girl responded but the three classmates turned to between themselves, holding the various swimsuit designs in their hands, and leaving Koyomi in the floss as she had named it.

"_I can't believe she's reached first base in such short time!" _Haruna whispered to her two buddies.

"_Knowing each other for only a week or so, and then that happens!" _Kazumi noted. _"She's good."_

"_Not to mention she is practically every man's dream for the bed."_ Misa added in the fact. _"Negi-kun must be thinking about her now."_

"_Unforgivable." _Haruna said with an angry tone.

"_My plan will go in ruins because of this." _Misa said out of the blue.

_What are they talking about? _Koyomi wondered to herself whilst standing where she were. The reason she was standing there is because she thought that if she moved, they would just move her back into the wall.

"_What plan?" _Asakura wondered. Misa whispered her Reverse Genji Hikari Plan to the two classmates, having them recoil in shock before going back to whispering. _"I didn't hear of this. Nice one, Misa!"_

"_Just what we needed for Nodoka, too! You could have told us earlier!" _Haruna scolded the cheerleader mildly.

"_How was I supposed to know that she was to be kidnapped by aliens?" _Misa retorted. _"Hey, do you think that…" _She gestured to Koyomi, and the two girls' eyes went bright with killing intent. Not really.

_What was that recoil just now?" _Koyomi thought to herself, as the three class girls went to look at her with glowing eyes of doom. "Wh-why are you looking at me like that?"

"We got a special rule in 3-A regarding Negi-kun…" Kazumi said standing in the centre of the three.

"No outside gets close to him without our permission." Misa standing to the left of the reporter informed the cat-girl.

"And since you got a bit intimate with him…" Haruna on the right said, holding a quite revealing swimsuit, sending shivers down the cat-girl's spine. "We have special permission to give you punishment, Koyomi-chan…"

_**Poor girl. All the more reason someone could make a fan manga out of this. Volunteers any?**_

At the airport, there was a plane waiting for them. A personal jet coloured the same as bronze or refined gold, with a large red Lambada on both sides. Next to the Greek letter, there was a scent hound, more accurately a Welsh Hound. The plane itself was the same size of Ayaka's personal jet, minus the outrageous paintjob.

"Nice plane. They got a neat paint job at least. Better than yours, Iinchou." Madoka commented; but that one gained her a quick but oh so wrong argument from the blond.

"What's wrong with the paint job on my plane?"

"Didn't you see the reactions of the people over there when we landed?" Ako wondered looking at the class representative.

"No."

"There's your answer."

"Hello there!" A man called from the plane as he emerged. He was large and grey-haired, with a really thick beard apparently. He wore a great coat and from what could be seen inside the coat, there was a handle on his left side, reminding Setsuna of a mace shaft. She had encountered a similar weapon whilst in the magic world. "You must be the people invited by the Strategou, yes?"

"Er, yes. You would be one of the Hounds, right?" Negi asked in turn.

"I'm Lineer, your pilot this time. He asked me personally to fetch you." The big man responded, extending a hand for the boy teacher to shake. Negi took it.

"Er, well thank you for taking us, Lineer-san."

"Come on then, everyone. It's a long journey to Britain, and I've waiting here long enough for you to get here living on airplane food." Lineer said, gesturing them to get aboard. On his person, he was nervous when the vampire and Fate passed him, but the most shocking thing was probably the cat-girl clinging onto a tall squint eyed girl, shaking worse than an electrically shocked guy who accidentally touched an electric fence, with her tail completely stiff and up puffed. What happened to her?

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A/N: Now, the Arcadia arc is going to be a series of chapter varying in size, to catch up with the plot and the events that are happening. Hence why this was a short one. I don't really expect a lot of reviews ****to be honest, considering how you guys are, but I would appreciate it. If you do read this, I promise to give you a good piece of Konosetsu. It's a promise.**


	16. Bloodlines of magic

**A/N: ****I got myself some Beta readers now. Not to be proud about it, but I've been looking for one for some time now. This will be the re-introduction of another of my OCs, so bear with me.**

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Hours later, due to the plane landing at morning, the party arrived at London Heathrow Airport in the public landing strip. Apparently the Spartan Hounds had some great influence on the mundane world, because they could see a lot of people staring at the plane from the building. Once out of the plane, they emerged in the great area where the flight attendants greeted them nicely and welcomed them to Britain. Once inside, they walked past the stores, before spotting a sign which had the Ala Alba symbol on it. The one who held it was having a talk with someone else, and had his back turned to them. He wore a green long coat with red decorations, and golden trimmings. He had brown hair from what they could see and it was in a ponytail.

"That must be the guy who's waiting for us." Negi said. Before he could call to the man, he felt a hand on his shoulder and found Yuuna standing next to him with Makie.

"We recognize him, leave him to us." Yuuna said with her trademark smile, before nodding to Makie. The two sports advanced slowly and stood right behind the guy with the sign. After calculating the right time to do what they planned, they began to run towards the guy. He didn't seem to notice them at all. About three metres away from the man with the sign, they both leapt, Makie took the high jump, whilst the basketball player went low.

"What are they playing at?" Asuna asked loudly.

Yuuna came in first, but the man stepped to the right, and before she could shift, he had caught underneath his arm and pulled her upwards so her feet didn't touch the ground. Makie, being in mid-flight, hadn't learned mid-air-Instant Movement, so she was an easy target to be caught by the man's free hand. This happened. Her foot was caught by this fellow and then she was hanging mid-air next to Yuuna's face.

"Still can't do it." The man said cheerfully, turning their way so he could see the rest of the class. "But you almost had me there."

"No, you faked that you didn't notice us, Tengu-san." Yuuna accused the man holding her. "You knew we were here all along."

Tengu merely shrugged it off. "Well, I did see your reflection in the glass," he gestured to the glass wall next to him. "And I heard your chatter a mile away. And Makie, it's not a good idea trying a flying kick whilst wearing a skirt."

"I know!" Makie said, trying to cover her lower parts but her panties were still being seen from her behind. "I didn't know you were going to catch me like that."

"Um, Makie-san, Yuuna-san, do you know this person?" Negi asked nervously, catching their attention. Tengu decided at the time to put the girls down. First Yuuna as her feet were closest to the ground. Then he turned Makie around so her feet would touch the ground.

"Um, well…" Yuuna scratched her chin trying to find the right words for this introduction. "This is a good friend of ours who we met in the magic world: Ben… Bendi…" She couldn't remember the actual names, so Tengu merely sighed and gave a quick wave for them.

"Bendigeidfran Yates." They finally noted his full appearance. He was green eyed, wearing the long coat open, revealing a brown waistcoat over a white shirt. He also wore blue jeans of an unknown mark, because they couldn't see who made due to the label being always on the backside. On his long coat, there were three different sympols. The first one was the noticeable red Lambada in black edges appearing on the top left of his coat, showing that he was part of the Spartan Hounds. The second symbol was a red dragon, reminding Negi at least of Y Draig Goch, the red dragon on Wales' flag, this one being just beneath the Lambada. The final symbol was as large as the other two symbols on its own, so it was on the right side of the coat. It resembled a large keep with a gate standing open. It was completely black and didn't at first give any hint as to what kind of magic user he was. "But you can also call me Tengu if it feels more convenient."

"Why, Tengu-san?" Asuna wondered aloud for the group.

"Because it is my name." Tengu responded back. "Part of my real name is Brân, which is translated from Welsh as 'Raven'. Tengu is the Japanese translation of it, so it is easier for Japanese people to say 'Tengu' rather than 'Bran'. Don't you think so?"

"Uh, right." Asuna responded back.

"Well, we better hurry." Brân gestured for them to follow. "The gate is not going to stay open forever, and we'd have to wait a whole week if we miss it."

"Oh, right." Negi said and motioned for everyone to follow rather quickly. Once outside the building, they all entered a bus for the whole group. The bus didn't have any special markings on it, it was just an ordinary yellow and black bus. Inside was another driver, this one female with a hat to complete the set.

"So, I've got to ask…" Brân said as the bus started moving away from the airport he was standing next to the driver's seat. "How many of you have known about magic for more than three months?" The seniors, the sports girls and Ayaka, Hakase and Satsuki raised their hands in response. "And how many has known it before this event happened?" Madoka raised her hand in response. "And within the week?" He asked finally. The twins, Chizuru, the other two cheerleaders and Zazie raised their hands. "Okay…"

"Um, how do you know Yuuna and Makie, Tengu-san?" Ako raised her hand just to be curious.

"You might as well ask them yourself, but I can give you the basics. Back when Yuuna and Makie were working at that restaurant in the Magic World, they ran into some minor scuffle with a drunken person…"

"He was eight foot tall and weighed more than us sports girls altogether!" Yuuna protested against her friend.

"So?" Brân said easily with a grin. "They tend to be a bit slow when they're that big. One swift move on the happy sacks, they will drop like anyone else." (1)

"So you helped them out there?" Akira wondered.

"Yes, and it was a bit of a shock when I found out afterwards that they didn't know magic." Brân said, scratching his chin. "So I gave them their first wands and basic spell book after that."

"We studied on our own after that." Makie said holding up the same star wand she had received from him. "I managed to get the first one right, but then Yuuna managed to get past me. How was that?"

"He heh…" Yuuna grinned at her, whilst the others were looking at the two. "My dad is a mage too. It could be that magic is in my blood so it was easier for me."

"Hey now, I pulled it off faster than you did. Magic could be in my blood too." Makie protested against the basketball player.

"Depends on how the type of blood you have…" The female driver said to herself, unfortunately loud enough for them to hear. "…what?"

"What do you mean, 'type of blood you have...'?" Yuuna asked her the driver.

Brân looked over at Negi for this one. "You didn't teach them that?" Negi merely shrugged his shoulders in response, telling silently that he has no idea on this one. "Sigh, I guess I'd better tell you."

"Tell us what?"

"Let me explain. What Linda said is partially true." Brân gestured to the driver. "You know RPG games with magic in them, yes?"

"…Yeah." Some of them responded back.

"Can you tell me what the red and blue bars stand for in those games?" Brân asked them gently.

"The red bar always indicates hit points, meaning how much damage one can take before you die and the blue bar always tells you how much mana you have." Chisame said. She received some odd looks at her. "…What? I have played RPG games before. There's nothing wrong with that."

"That's true." Brân responded. "The red bar is red because blood is also red. Most people don't understand that connection at first. The blue bar is just a hint on the actual connection in the real world." The looks were a bit unnerving for him. "Uh, okay… when you say magic is in the blood, then you say you have a large amount of mana. Um… this is hard. Okay, you say magic is in your blood, right?" This time he got some nods back at him. "And Mana in the games is depicted as blue, yes?" Again some nods. "When you combine the saying with the depiction, what do you get?"

"Uh… Magic blood?" Asuna tried desperately. Despite being a magic princess, she had never really learnt the concept of the thing.

"Blue blood." Brân responded, leaning forwards.

"Nobility." Fate finally spoke up.

"Yes. Nobility is the reason why some people have magic in their veins and some, not. Noblemen have always been priests of the old gods, and in turn for holding the rituals, they could use magic. (2) The purer blue blood you have, the more magic energy you have to begin with."

"But then again, this would only mean that you are just a big tank of magic energy." Fate added in to the session.

"Yes, but it would also mean that you have easier to get it on faster than others." Brân retorted. Fate merely nodded. "Now, I did some research, and the Strategou told me this as well. Take the case of Konoe Konoka." He gestured to the healer in their group, at least the more powerful one. "Konoka is part of the Fujiwara clan, which, if you've studied history at some point, was the only source of Imperial brides for about eleven hundred years. This resulted in a massive build-up of magic energy in that time, eventually leading to the most powerful bloodline in the Old World." He then motioned to Negi. "Now, Negi is a bit different. On his father's side, he is descended to a line of knights originally tasked with protecting Wales. Magic users could have been introduced at some point in history to the Springfield family."

"You hear that, Negi-kun? You are a powerful knight." Misa said, not knowing the other side.

"There's more to it." Brân said, leaning to the side of the bus. "On his mother's side however, Negi is the direct descendant of the Enteofushia family, Royal Family of Ostia, the founding royal family of the Magic World's culture."

The whole bus was quiet for a short moment. Then a slight gasp came, giving the senior members a chance to plug their ears, aka Asuna, Yue, Haruna, Kaede, Kotarou, Setsuna and Konoka and the rest. Then a loud 'EEEEEEHHHH!' echoed throughout the whole bus. It temporarily gave Linda shock enough to jerk on the wheel to scare a truck driver on the other side enough to stop.

"I take it was a bit shocking." Brân said calmly, once the driving was restored.

"You can say that again." Negi said, having not plugged his ears. Before he knew it, girls were all over him, giving him hugs and congratulating him.

_How does he pull it off being with those girls? _Fate thought as he watched the scene, whilst Asuna tried to pull her nephew away before Ayaka reached him. Oh wait, she was trying to get him loose from Ayaka. _Must be all that time he spent being so peaceful…_

"Let go, or we'll miss all the good stuff!" Asuna shouted, trying to get Ayaka off Negi.

"The only good stuff is right here in my arms!" Ayaka responded the same volume. Where did the flower petals come from?

_Nope, she's head over heels in love with him. _You have three guesses as to who thought this.

"Iinchou! You've had enough!"

"My turn!"

"We want to hug him as well!"

"Iinchou-san! You can let go now!"

"I don't want to let go!"

_**This rambled on all the way out of London and into the country side.**_

Way out in the lands of Wales, the bus arrived in another town, instead of the one where Negi lived. There was no academy here. This was a neighbouring village to Meldiana though, as Nekane was waiting for them there along with the Headmaster. The headmaster of the academy was quite stunned to see Fate along on this, but after a fairly long explanation, things cooled down a little.

"I see…" The headmaster said gently. "I believe I need to say this: 'The bad plants that do not grow, need not be cut down.'" (**A/N: You figure it out yourself**)

"It could be an astute meaning in this, I think." Fate agreed to that saying.

"We'll be leaving tomorrow." Brân said, walking up to the group of magi. "Take your time to look around this town. Don't hesitate to talk to the folk, they'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. Just for the record, we leave at dawn."

_**Let's **__**cut till dawn, shall we?**_

A deep fog rode across the valley as the party left the outskirts of the village, all dressed in magi cloaks. It was a chilly morning and the fog was very dense.

"Where's Tengu-san?" Asuna wondered, looking for him. "He's not with us."

"He could have left for another matter." Ayaka made a theory.

"No, we need a proper guide to the Gate." Yue retorted. "We can't get there on our own in this fog."

"We have an S+ level mage on our side, 3-A's Goddess of Luck and you think we can't get there on our own?" Kotarou said sarcastically at the Valkyrie. Yue merely turned her head down.

"Well, I wouldn't say you'd have problem reaching the gate." Brân said as he stepped out from behind a large cliff. He was clad in a cloak like them, with a key exception. He held a long staff, fairly straight, ending with a large curve on the top, going in a full circle. Tied to the tip of the staff, a bell hung freely, giving them the impression that he was a shepherd. "But trying to find it in this fog is the trick."

"Why are you holding that staff?" Kazumi asked him.

"I am your guide to the Gate. It's my duty." Brân responded nonchalantly, walking past them and motioned for them to follow. "Come on."

The walk was quiet before Kotarou broke the silence. "What exactly do you mean 'it's your duty'?"

Brân didn't stop to answer, so he answered while walking. "My family has done this sort of service for centuries. That's why we're the Yates." Of course, that left the Hanyou boy a bit confused.

"…I don't get it."

"Think etymology of the name." (3)

Negi figured it out after about a minute. "…Oh! Oh! Now I get it."

"Get what?" Madoka asked him as she stepped over a log.

"Please don't tell me this is another lesson in magic." Yuuna groaned.

"No need. I'll give you the basics. Tengu-san's name Yates means "Gatekeeper". So it basically means that he is descended from a line of magi and knights tasked with protecting and keeping the Gate a secret from the rest of the world." Negi said.

"Basically, yes." Brân added to the fact. "My ancestors made this fog originally, so the mundane world wouldn't find it. We've done this service for magi for centuries, guiding them to the gate so they can enter Mundus Magicus."

"What are the staff and the bell for?" Asuna asked him.

"It's originally used for helping those lost in the fog to find their way back to me. I just jingle the bell and they find their way."

"Oh goody." Konoka said happily. "Could you use it right now, please? Because the twins are gone."

"Mei is not here either." Takane said.

"Zazie-chan is also missing." Yuuna added to the pot.

Brân stopped this time, turning around with a clear sweat drop on his head. "You should mention things like that earlier. Okay, call their names while I use the bell." Brân raised the bell on the staff and jingled it so the clang could be heard loudly. Shortly afterwards, the girls in the class began calling for those that were lost in the fog. After about two minutes of ringing and calling, the missing people turned up from around them. "Now then. Weren't you told that we stick together?"

"We're sorry! Fumika-chan got stuck in something and it took some time to get her loose." Mei responded for herself and the twins.

Brân turned to Zazie. "And you?"

"…" was the only response from the juggling girl.

"…Um… does she normally talk?" Brân asked, pointing at her.

"No." most of the girls responded bluntly.

"Never mind. Let's keep moving." Brân motioned for them to follow him further into the mist. After a long walk, the sun rose up as they approached the Gate yet again, at least for the seniors who has been here before. The scene was familiar to them as they approached the Gate. "This is where I will leave you." Brân said as they approached the great boulders. "Part of my job is to make sure no intruders come as well. There will be someone expecting you on the other side, so don't worry about me."

"Thank you, Tengu-san." Negi said for the whole group as they approached the great rock in the centre of the circle.

"Uh, wait, Tengu-san." Takane said as Brân turned to leave, but stopped to listen to the shadow user. "Uh, thank you for guiding us here to the gate and, uh, doing this service for others."

"It's cool." Brân responded back.

"Um, surely you must appreciate history for giving you this important." Takane said, trying to get a smile from him.

Brân did give a smile, but added a chuckle as well. "No. I absolutely hate this duty." Then he wandered off from her.

"…Wha?"

"ONEE-SAMA! The Gate is about to open!" Mei called for the shadow user from the rock. Takane didn't turn back to look at Brân as he exited the perimeters for the gate to open. She just left it alone there as they were being sent to the Magic world.

"Well, there they go…" Brân says to himself as he sees the bright light go off. "Shame I didn't warn about Rachel. Can't believe that woman is twenty years my senior…" He said to himself, remembering that woman he had a spar with when he was still a newbie. "And now I'm stuck with guarding the Gate again for a few weeks. This sucks." Then he spotted a group of various demons gathered around the gate, talking amongst themselves before starting to take off. "Of course, the only reason why I do this is because I get to fight demons. This should keep me busy for a while." He drew out his broadsword and pulled off his cloak to reveal heavy chain mail armour.

**

* * *

A/N: We'll leave it there for now, next we'll be seeing the actual Magic World. Great for me at least to see Brân again in action. He filed in a complaint that he didn't get any reviews in the latest chap of his story, the Gaelic Hunter, so I put him in here to do justice. **

**1 I'm primarily using these footnotes for educating you on how to make OCs in this chapter as I discovered a good way to make a powerful one. Right now, Brân simple meant a groin attack. Regardless of size and protection, an attack there, male or female, and they're down. Lesson # 1: If you want your OC to be a good fighter, have them fight dirty.**

**2 Lesson # 2: When you make an OC with lots of magic, they must have a special bloodline, either to nobility or even royalty, or to some magic creature that is innate with magic. Doesn't matter how far away they are, there's always a little jump within the family at some point. Yuuna's dad is a mage, so it should be easier for her to use magic. In Makie's case, she is actually descended from Sasaki Kojiro, a famous Samurai who fought Mushashi. Everyone who reads the manga on the Internet will understand Negi's case immediately. This is official in the manga, at least with bloodlines.**

**3 Lesson # 3: Having a name that means something special also plays a vital role. It can reflect upon what kind of magic you would use and give you a certain instinct on how the characters are. In Brân's case, it means from old English "Dweller at the keep" or "Gatekeeper" Hence the explanation on his family. Of course, it also means that he doesn't like this family job.**


	17. Politics, we hate you

**A/N: And we're off into the Magic World now. I'm currently looking for a job, so updates will take time.**

* * *

The sight familiar to the seniors of the White Wing, plus Fate's team, that lacked Janos & Laura and Kagetarou, was that of the ruined doorway that could be found in Ostia. They were on the inside of the building where the gate was. To the newcomers in the group, it didn't look much. It was their first time here, of course.

"What kind of place is this?" Ayaka asked aloud, as the white haired magi went for the doorway. "It's so… old."

"Since the other gates are still in repair, this abandoned gate is the only means of transportations between the worlds. But since we are in dangerous territory, it also would mean that we could charged for using it in an off limits area." Fate said as he moved a large boulder out of the way. The area looked as if something had exploded nearby, hence all the rubble around them.

"Wait, what?" Madoka asked.

"Dragons and other kinds of monsters roam this area." Negi informed them. "Normally only high level adventurers go into this area. And even they need special permission from the government."

"We're not going to be arrested or something?" Misa wondered, scouting the immediate area for some kind of soldiers. "There aren't any special forces in this area, is there?"

"No." Shirabe informed the cheerleader. "There are no special forces scouring this area, due to the large quantity of beasts here. Moreover, if they were to be here, there would be hell to pay since they would have entered without permission themselves."

As they exited the building, they couldn't help but notice the large fleet of military ships flying above them. It was very easy to figure out why.

"Except… we failed to remember him." Kaede said not too happy about things.

"Ah, yes… Godel. We forgot him." Kotarou said with a blank face. "When is that guy going to quit?"

"When he gets what he wants." Fate said. Although they could not see it, there was a small vein bursting hidden beneath his hair. "That's when."

"Who?"

"You don't want to know. Seriously."

* * *

"You do realize that trespassing in off limits area is a serious crime, regardless of ignorance and/or capability to look after yourself?" Kurt Godel, Governor-general of Ostia, informed the whole group standing in front of him, all surrounded by guards. He was wearing his standard uniform with the long coat and wore the special cap of his rank to show it. "Given the circumstances, you could be put away for life. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." Negi answered for the whole group, rather than that they answer. Godel seemed a bit gentle at first.

"Well, I've received a letter from Aristodemus, and I understand the reasons that you used the gate for." He informed them. "Personally, I don't like it, but since he sent someone already, I must allow you to pass."

"Huh?" Asuna wondered aloud. "How good is this Aristodemus guy?"

"Me, I don't know myself, but he's always been listened to by the Council. It's as if he's holding sway over them." Godel responded.

About time I found you guys." A new voice came to them from behind the group. It was a short bronze skinned girl with short black hair, dressed in what appeared to be Leather. She wore a custom made utility belt with bags of various designs and sizes. On her back there was a blade shaft, but they couldn't see if it was curved or straight. But it was her grey eyes that caught their attention. They pierced into them as if they were scanning for any potential weaknesses. At least, that's how they felt with her looking at them. "It was quite a pain having to track you down with all these unnecessary military forces around."

"Unnecessary?" A guard overhearing her said to himself.

"Miss Rachel," Godel addressed the new comer. "Even if you say that this force is unnecessary, trespassing in off limits areas are a serious crime. I can't believe that you are taking it-"

"Blah, blah, blah." Rachel responded back to the governor. "All I care about is that they got here safe and sound. That's what matters to me." Her tone was obvious that she didn't like Godel. Kotarou and the others could agree on that.

Godel did not seem happy about it. "Well then, you just are a lackey of that man." He said, getting a twitch from her. "Well, that you were sent to pick up former criminals must simply mean that he's got very little trust in-" He never got to finish that sentence due to sudden pain in his groin. Yes, you read right.

"You can't imagine how long I've been willing to do that." Rachel said, as she had planted her foot right in that sensitive area of Godel. "Strategou-sama said that I was authorized to do that if you would not cooperate with me. Any objections, now?"

_Now that is scary. _Konoka thought.

"_Is that okay, normally?" _Asuna wondered.

"_Who knows? Either she got the skills to do that, or she is ignorant of his personality…" _Setsuna figured as well through their telepathy.

Godel didn't respond to her ramble at first, but once he got over the pain, he tried to gain some status back. "Well, if you say so, Miss Rachel… then I must feel inclined to let you proceed…" He was definitely feeling pain still.

"Well then, shall we get going then?" Rachel turned to the others. "I got the ship all fixed up and ready. Come on, then. I got Senator-Admiral Ricardo waiting for you aboard already." She practically pushed them to the docks where their ship was. Last where they parked it, at least. Upon seeing the ship, Haruna managed to pull herself out of the crowd in order to jump up towards the main bow and hug and kiss it thoroughly.

"Great Paru-sama! It's been a while! Mommy missed you. Yes, she did!" She told the big fish like ship that was hers.

"Uh… what?" Ayaka just had to point at the mangaka.

"She bought it." Asuna responded.

"Oh." The class representative finally understood. "That couldn't have been worth much."

Haruna happened to hear that comment. "150 000 drachmas is a serious amount of money!"

"Still, it can't be much in yen." Ayaka retorted.

"Actually, a single drachma is worth the equivalent of 600 yen (six US dollars) in Japan." Fate retorted back at her. "So she bought it for 90 million yen." He went up to the main bridge of the ship. (A/N: Yes. It is actually that amount. I calculated it.)

Most of the girls stayed quiet after that comment. Haruna had heard it as well. 90 million yen. God knows how long they would have to work in order to raise that kind of money. Even though Ayaka stayed quiet, Konoka didn't. Because she could afford something like that easily. And given that it was a ship, it would be also understood that she would buy it if she had to.

"Wah-hey!" A familiar voice to Negi and Kotarou called to them from the ship. It was Senator-Admiral Ricardo, who had trained them in martial arts before their epic fight with Jack Rakan. "Hey, Negi! Welcome back!"

"Ricardo-san!" Negi called back at the man and waved.

"Yo!" Kotaro shouted and gave a wave as well.

"We ought to be off soon, people! Would you get a m-? What the hell are you doing here!?" He panicked when he noticed that Fate was standing on the bridge.

"I was invited as well." Was the blunt answer of the white haired one.

"What is that old man thinking, really?" Ricardo was of course referring to Aristodemus.

"Necessity, I would guess." Fate responded back. "I got information regarding the incursion, and I'm positive that he would be one to listen… even if it's from a former enemy."

"Oh, alright then." Ricardo didn't seem too happy about this development.

_**A few miles away from Ostia…**_

"So what did he do?" Kotarou asked Ricardo and Rachel whilst on the deck of the Great Paru-sama. The two seniors were a bit confused, so Kotarou went on. "Come on, this Aristodemus-san have got to have done something during the war. Everybody we've come to know has gone through a lot of stuff in the war. I bet anything that Aristodemus was a fighter that fought on the front lines. Or maybe he was one of the several secret agents that worked behind the enemy lines. He certainly sounds like it from what Godel told us. What did he do really?"

Both of the seniors answered him. "He stayed out of it all." That answer made the Hanyou fall over.

"Of course, not that he didn't want to, he just couldn't." Ricardo continued. "Aristodemus-san has been Strategou (1) over the Spartan Hounds as long as I can tell, and he's always been a bright spot. On his person, I'd say the man would have been a secret agent."

"Me, I'd put him as a commander." Rachel said. "He's got the skills for it, and he knows how to keep a cool head." She had something of a smile.

"What do you mean he just couldn't?" Asuna asked the two. "He could have entered the war if he wanted to, right?"

"Not quite." Ricardo responded. "You need to see the point of view of a politician. He could have entered the war, but he is the head of an NGO. Their primary goal is to stay out of war, and it would put him at frosty relations with either side, depending on whoever he joined. What's more, he would not risk prolonging the war if he wanted it to a swift ending by throwing in his lot."

"Politician?" Kotarou wondered.

"Ah, high ranking people these days cannot just walk into a fight if they wanted to." Ricardo said. "They need to figure out who is who, if they have done anything wrong, what the hell is going on…" he stopped slowly as Kotarou and the others were not really sure of his words. "Okay then, an example: two tribes are having an argument over a geyser of spice somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Both tribes do not like fighting, but the arguments are leading towards it. So in order to prevent war, they both try to come to a compromise regarding the geyser."

Kotarou didn't seem to understand it very much.

"Alright then, another example." Fate said, catching their attention. "Why I came to Mahora." This caught their attention. "The incursion with the aliens is what drove me to come there. Originally, my plans are to destroy the Magic World, this you already know. However, these aliens come for other purposes. For all I know, they could be planning to invade and take over the Old World. Normally I wouldn't care, but since they are aware of magic, this could lead that they would also invade the Magic World."

"And that would ruin your own plans." Ricardo pointed out.

"Yes. I could have turned to any other place, as long as they have had hostile contact with this Fashtar person. And given that Negi has lost a member of his group to them, which would lead to the fact that he has personal reasons to go against them. That way, I could prepare a proper defence against Fashtar, and be able to continue my own plans afterwards."

Fate finished on that matter. "But let's focus on something else, shall we?"

"Although there were Spartan Hounds fighting in the war," Rachel continued on the history lesson. "They fought on both sides, having decided their own side. But they had major rules. 1: Maintain the safety of civilians. 2: Do not fight each other under any circumstances. 3: Bring war-orphans to Arcadia."

"Why Arcadia?" Asuna wondered on that point.

"Arcadia is recognized as its own independent state. You could call it the home of the Hippeis and the HQ of us in general." Rachel responded back. "And we are looking after war-orphans above all things. We bring them to Arcadia so that we can send them to school and such."

"Ah?" Shiori just noticed something. She looked over at Fate, and he nodded silently in return to her upon seeing her looking at him with a curious look.

"They finally threw in their lot when they were informed that there were infiltrators on both sides, that aspired uprisings and eventually caused the war." Ricardo said. "Whilst we were taking the enemy strongholds, they exposed the infiltrators and arrested them."

"So they arrested a lot of Cosmo Entelecheia's back then…" Negi said to himself. Just to make sure, he looked over the Fate, who was sitting on the railing. The construct looked back at Negi at first, then turned his eyesight elsewhere into the distance.

"Yes. But nowadays, they prefer the simple life of warriors and protectors. They are known for being peacekeepers, and they are mainly considered the good guys." Ricardo said with a proud smile on his face.

"And what of Aristodemus?" Kotarou wondered. "What's he like?"

Rachel and Ricardo were silent on that matter. Then they looked in several directions, trying to see what this man was like. "Frankly, I have no idea." Rachel said herself. "He never told me about his past, or what he was."

"I think he's a fighter." Ricardo said. "I remember one time when he and I had a fight to teach the new recruits once. He used some kind of touching techniques on me, whilst I got to use whatever I wanted on him."

"Oh yeah, I was there, too." Rachel said to Ricardo. "He was playing the stealthy assassin and you were the guard that found him."

"But he got me good on the first go." Ricardo said disgruntled. "Every time we had a spar, he'd win. I don't even know what he used."

"Well, I talked to him afterwards and asked what he used. He just called it Dim Mak." Rachel said, putting a hand on her chin. "I don't know what he meant by that. I'll never get the hang of all his techniques…"

"Wait a minute." Setsuna said. "The way you talk about him, Rachel-san… You wouldn't happen to be… his disciple, are you?"

Rachel smiled back at the swordswoman. "Yep. Aristodemus is my Oshishou-sama." She responded back with a good grin on her face.

"Whoa!" Kazumi said out loud from the door. "We got his own disciple to escort us." She quickly produced a notebook. "Come on. You have got to tell us what kind of person he is. Sure you would know something about him."

"Something about him…" Rachel thought about it for a moment, but her body started to shiver very quickly after a while. "…his flying lessons are scary…"

"Huh?" was what came out of Kazumi's mouth.

"Is it me…?" Fate said out of the blue, still looking outwards, catching their attention. "…or have we stopped moving?"

"Wha?" A few of them said once they realized it. After a small funny sound was made from somewhere, the whole ship started plummeting downwards. Everybody on the deck grabbed onto what they could in order to not fall off permanently. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

"WHY ARE WE FALLING DOWNWARDS!?"

"WHO PUSHED THE WRONG BUTTON INSIDE!?"

_Inside the ship, down at the engine room…_

"So this is what powers the ship…" Hakase said as she held the blue orb the size of a soccer ball, glowing right in front of her. "This must be what compels the fish to fly high in the air, and still maintain power-to-rate ratio. But what if-"

Haruna managed to get in the engine room, taking the orb from Hakase and planting it in again, preventing the ship from crashing down into the ocean. "Don't do that ever on my ship, again!"

"But-"

"_NO BUTS!"_ That was echoed across the whole ship.

A while later, Kaede came out to check on the people outside. "Is everyone alright?"

"Yes, we're fine." Negi responded, having been bitten in the clothes by his silver dragon, which had taken hold of the deck. Asuna was holding on to Rachel, who had taken a straight hold right in the deck. Fate was floating gently down to the deck holding Shiori, as was Setsuna holding Kazumi. Ricardo was holding on to dear life on the railings along with Kotarou. "What happened?"

"Hakase wanted to know how the ship moved, apparently." Kaede answered.

"Right." Asuna said dead panned.

_**Without any further trouble on the journey…**_

It took an appropriate six hours to reach Arcadia. From their point of view, it was a beautiful place. They couldn't see the town, but they noted that the place was lush, filled with fruit and wondrous trees that probably were brought in from the Old World. They noted people riding horses, magic users riding on brooms and other sorts of people. They noted that the island must be the largest in the Magic World.

"This is Arcadia?" Asuna asked, awestruck at the sight. "This is where Aristodemus-san lives?"

"He practically owns the place." Ricardo says. "Thanks to a seemingly outstanding military record he's had from somewhere, he bought this place and established the town there. It seems he just wants to live out his own days in peace."

"So he just handles paperwork and all that?" Kazumi asked the senator.

"Nah, he's still an active field worker." Ricardo said back. "Weird thing is, I don't recall him in the army. He never fought in the war. He spoke publicly that the Hounds would stay out of the war, and he's only done work post-war."

"Oshishou-sama is tired of war." Rachel said like a child pouting. "He doesn't like war life anymore, he told me. Gave it up years ago."

"Eh?" Kotarou exclaimed. "Why would he want to give up a life of fighting like that?"

Rachel responded by getting VERY close to Kotarou's face. To anybody else from afar, it would look like they were kissing. "He's done things even you wouldn't be able to do."

"Hey." Ricardo said and pointed to a ship which at least he recognized. "I think I'm not the only one invited by Aristodemus-san."

_**Down on the island…**_

"Great to see you again, Negi!" Princess Theodora gave Negi a big hug, which led of course that he was put again between a large pair of breasts, leading to protests from the other girls. Then again, Theo gave a small yelp when she saw Fate and his group along. But she managed to gain her posture. "Well, I guess it can't be helped."

"Hey, Negi! Is that you?" A much familiar voice called out from above their position on a platform.

"Rakan-san?" Negi called back. "Is that you?"

"Come on up here! I can't move really!" Rakan called back from his place.

"What do you mean, you can't move?" Asuna called as she and Negi went up there by simply jumping up there. "Surey you... can..." She stopped.

"I told you I can't move." What Rakan said was true, because his body was all petrified, and only his head was freed out of the stone. He was still wearing the same suit from the ball time. "I just had an accident."

"You call that an accident!?" Negi shouted out as the others came up via the stairs or flew up.

"Um, Negi-sensei..." Ayaka stared at the statue with a living head. "…who is that?"

"Ah…" Negi started, trying to find the proper words whilst Rakan eyed all the new gorgeous additions to Negi's group. Finally, he found the words he's looking for. "This is a friend of my father, his partner, Jacobus Rakan-san. He taught me a lot during our first visit here. But I didn't expect him to be in this state, really."

"You can blame it on your new buddy." Rakan nudged to Fate, who merely crossed his arms and stared back at Rakan. "Well, I was finally brought back to life here. They restored my face and internal organs to breathe, but that's about it. It was eventually decided that I'd be put in a new body."

"A new body?"

"Yeah, something to put me in for the rest of my life. Shame I have to leave this behind, but hey, its life." Rakan said a bit depressing, but he cheered up when a group of people came along with a large wagon covered in a white sheet. "Hey, is that it?"

"Yes, Rakan-dono." The first one, a young man with glasses said, looking a bit frantic. "It was the best thing that the assigned artificer could do and-"

"What!? I thought the best in the field was employed!" Rakan said back loudly.

"Well, I'm gonna be honest with you, it doesn't have a skin." The man responded. To further prove his point, he moved over to the sheet and showed off an arm. It was made of mainly metal, golden coloured and it was five fingered. To make the joints similar to a human hand, it had strangely bendable wood underneath. "We didn't manage to do the skin, since we estimated that you wouldn't like to look like a golem all the time."

"I could make the skin." Hakase spoke up, catching their attention. "I've done that sort of thing before."

"Oh, come on." The man scoffed at her. "How could you manage to accomplish like that?"

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, I want to listen." Rakan said at the man.

"Well, Chachamaru, could you come here, please?" Hakase asked the robot to follow her to the group. "This is my original creation, Chachamaru. I made the exterior shape and I constantly upgrade her."

One of the scientists asked if he could touch the skin, and the robot nodded in return. Upon touching her cheek, he was amazed. "She's not kidding." He told them. "It feels exactly the same as genuine skin." The others went to try.

"Hey, what's your name?" Rakan asked her.

"I tend to called Hakase." The scientist responded proudly.

"I'd be forever grateful if you could apply skin similar to my original body, Hakase-chan." Rakan said. "I'd bow, but um…"

"I can take a hint." Hakase responded flat tuned. "Okay, if you have a lab somewhere, then let me show you how I do magic."

The young man, who spoke first, after having doubted her at first, gestured for her to follow. "Right this way then, Miss Hakase."

Whilst the group of scientists walked away along with a cheering Rakan going on about that he's back in the game, Ricardo and Theo motioned to the others to follow them. They all walked to a large building in ancient Greek design, complete with pillars on the outside. The interior was different. It featured a weightlifting gym, some form of self punishment device, a pool, a large boulder to move, and a chessboard. All of that was on the first floor. The upper floor, which was connected with a spiral stair case that had a special hole for magi that could fly, they found a large open area with several paintings on the walls, each different than the other, and at the corner next to a large window., they spotted a man who was making some sort of painting with coloured sand.

When the last one, Mana had left the stairs in order to join the others, the man with the sand spoke up suddenly. "And so, the lost prince of Vespertatia, lost after ten years, returns to the lands where he was born, seeking answers to questions only he knows…" He stopped carving the coloured sand and turned around to look directly at Negi. "Welcome to Arcadia, Negi-kun." Without a doubt, this was Aristodemus.

**A/N: Cut! Next chapter, we will see a description of the Strategou, along with the stuff that is here. I made up that Rakan has to be put in a new body, but hey, it's fanfiction. Plus, I've always wanted to see him as some sort of golem. Furthermore, I did not create Rachel. She is originally made by Nyrath, who taught me a lot about writing. One last thing, I've come up with a fourth tip on making a good OC, which should come more as a rule: "Don't go overboard."  
**

**1: I forgot a translation last time. Strategou is Greek for General. It does have a suggestion that Aristodemus has some military background.  
**


	18. Master of Hounds & Mysticism

**A/N: I swear the strangest thing happened to me for a few days after the last update. I couldn't get any e-mails whatsoever. Which could explain why I got the notion that the story was updated a few days later. Really weird.**

* * *

"Okay, here we are." The lead scientist lead them to a large chamber where there were a large table with straps. Hakase found the lab to be rather that of a traditional mad scientist. Bottles and sample tubes, lightning generators, computers going on constantly, it was so classical. Still, at they kept the place clean from spider webs and there were no rats around. In comparison, her own lab was a mess. "Okay, we're going to put your new body here, Mr. Rakan." They moved the new body to the table, whilst Rakan was placed next to it. "This is going to be a bit difficult to explain to you now. It is a common belief that the soul is connected with one's magical energy, and when you use it, you use part of your own soul."

"So you use your soul to use magic?" Hakase asked as she pulled off the sheet and inspected the new body for the great swordsman. It was the same size as him.

"Yes. Using that as a basis, we are going to transfer the magic energy you have, Rakan, and I mean _all_ of it, into that metal body." Rakan nodded at the idea, notifying that he liked it.

"Okay. And how are we going to transfer it?"

"That is where I come in." A new voice called to them. She seems to have waited for them. She was a gorgeous woman with long black hair which had a ridiculous thickness. She had kind eyes, being brown and… was that grey streaks approaching her? She was dressed in a combination of a mage cloak and a lab coat, rendering her other clothes hidden underneath. "I developed a special transferring device in order to transfer it all to your new form. It's is going to hurt initially, but it was the best I could do." She walked over to them.

"Pleased to meet you." Hakase said, bowing to her, and the woman returned it, as well as Chachamaru did too. "I'm going to make the finishing touches on Rakan-san's body."

"Ah, you're the new arrival." The woman responded pleasingly. "I hope you do a good job then."

"Nice and all that," Rakan said interrupting them. "But can we get on with this?"

"Ah yes." Hakase said, but before she went to prepare the skin, she stopped and reached out her hand. "I forgot, we haven't been properly introduced. Friends call me Hakase."

The woman took the hand and shook it gently. "Precia. Precia Testarossa."

* * *

Aristodemus didn't appear at first what they thought him to be, minus the age. He appeared to be a very well preserved tanned man in his fifties or early sixties. He was of the stocky type, not the tall slim figure of Ricardo, nor the giant muscular shape of Rakan's old body. He wore a waistcoat in the colour of peach along with a studded belt that had a belt buckle in an elaborate shape, the snake eating its own tail. Beneath the waistcoat, he had a silk shirt coloured red, and he wore trousers which were also peach coloured. He wore a stout pair of brown boots which went half the way up to his knees. His belt had an extra addition. To his left, there hung a sword sheath with a sword that had a shaft in the shape of a horseshoe holding the blade, with the other end also a horseshoe, but a small bag hung by its side.

On his person though, he was black haired with a few streaks of grey slowly approaching, but his hair was neatly cut short. His eyes were brown, from what they could see of his numerously scarred face. One in particular went down over his left eye, whilst others covered his cheeks, one was on his chin in the centre and small sinews of steel could be found in various places. This was clearly a man who has seen military action, many a time.

"Um… I don't really know if I should say this, but…" Asuna spoke up nervously after taking a look at him. He was in the category which could make her fall head over heels, giving his physique. "…I was kind of, expecting you to be…"

"…somewhat taller?" The Strategou finished for her, and she merely nodded weakly. "I get that a lot." It was true, because on height, he was as tall as they were, somewhere about 160-165. It's not very tall really for a man. "Okay, everybody: Those of you, who thought I'd be taller, please raise your hand so we can get this matter over with." To his surprise, only Rachel, being his disciple and Ricardo, having seen him before, were the only ones who did not raise their hand.

"Ah…" Aristodemus sighs. "I'll be pleased to chat with you all, but first," He looked over at Rachel. "I got a complaint from Godel that you kicked him in the groin." He addressed her bluntly. "Is it true?"

Rachel seemed a bit nervous. "Um… well, yes. It is true."

"Care to enlighten me on why you kicked him?"

"He…" Rachel tried to find the words.

"The truth would suffice." Aristodemus said after a while.

"He belittled us." Rachel said after drawing a deep breath. "He insulted you and said that you had little trust in me for sending me after a group of former criminals."

Her master merely sighed at that. "That guy doesn't know who to not play with. I swear, he is going to pull something really dangerous one day…" the short politician said flat tuned. Straightening himself though, he went to look at Negi instead. "Pleased to meet you at last, Negi-kun." He greeted the boy with a smile and extended his hand to him. "Seeing you for real rather than on TV is much better."

"Ah… Pleased to meet you." Negi took his hand and shook it gently. "Um, thank you for taking us on such short notice."

"Hey, I can afford to meet with Arika's son any day." Aristodemus said gently while stepping back to the table. "Plus, I didn't have much to do anyway."

"Eh?" Asuna wondered aloud. "You knew his mom?"

"Oh yes." The Strategou responded back. "We had many talks in the past. She was quite the philosopher. Reminded me of Marcus Aurelius."

"You knew Aurelius?" Yue asked him, which made him flinch for a moment.

"Ah, eh… no, I didn't." He said with a suspicious chuckle. "But you can read his books still today, can't you?"

"Ah, you're right." Yue said, instantly remembering that his books were in Library Island.

"Okay, now that that is taken care of, let me explain. In the week until the gate will open again, you will spend your time here." Aristodemus told them all. "You're all free to go anywhere you like, as long as you do not cause trouble. I can provide you with money if you ask, so finances are no problem. So have fun, okay?"

He heard a collective "YES" from the girls and almost immediately the girls went to the stairs in order to go somewhere else. Negi, Fate, Asuna, Kotarou, Theo, Rachel and Ricardo stayed behind. Chamo was on Negi's shoulder.

"Well, now that the surplus people are out of the way for now," Aristodemus said, turning serious now. "I believe you want to talk about the sword, yes?"

"Yes." Fate answered for the group. "That is the main reason we're here." On hearing this, Negi produced the silver sword from his back and its silk packing like that of a Katana and presented the blade to the elder warrior. Aristodemus took it by the shaft and went a few steps away from them. Before giving it a go, he noticed that Yue, the one who had asked him about Aurelius, were watching from afar.

"You can come over here, Ayase-san. If you wanted to stay behind, you could have just done so." He mildly scolded her, and she went over to them, her head hanging down in shame.

"Sorry, I didn't intend ill will." She said sadly.

"None expected." The Strategou responded, and began his movements. In the start, like Setsuna when she tried it, he was slow to warm up. It felt almost hypnotizing watching him handle the sword… like a true master. He intensified his movements as well, making the sword changing into not only just sword types, but also several spears, axes, clubs, maces and other several exotic weapons as he wielded the blade with an intensity few would possess. In the end when he was finished, he was in a kneeling position, holding the sword in front of him, it being a thick forward bent blade that had weight as its favour. "So it has that ability, huh…" He said to himself as he rose up from his position.

_Kotarou whistled impressed at the man's skill._

"Ultimate test." Aristodemus said loudly as he put the sword on his knee and bent it, making the others shocked at his action. A few seconds later and the sword was nothing more than a neatly bent blade in the fashion of a salted cringle.

"What the hell!?" Chamo shouted at him, ignoring respect for once. "Why did you do that to such a nice weapon that could actually be used?"

"This is why." Aristodemus made a swift swing with the sword, and as fast as he swung it, the sword had returned to its normal shape. Chamo, at least was speechless. Everyone else with the exception of a certain construct had big white eyes. After a moment of inspection, Aristodemus tossed the sword back to Negi. "I know of it, certainly. It is truly a wondrous weapon you have there, Negi-kun."

"Um, thanks." The boy responded back. "But, how come you know of the sword that well?"

"Simple." Aristodemus gave a smile at him and crossed his arms. "I got myself one of those too."

* * *

Konoka and Setsuna were walking together along the streets of the town, known as Ithaca, named after the historical Greek town of Odysseus. The city had the theme of a mix between Ancient Greek and Persian culture, leaving it a wondrous site to see. The marketplace was huge, as was common in the old times. There were booths, shops, and bit of everything for them to see. People sold weapons, armor in case they needed it, bookstores and many more. But the marketplace also had neat food stores where you could buy straight away hot or cold, depending on the dish. That was why they had found a side restaurant having one of their favourite past-time snacks: The meat bun, steamed very much like the ones Chao used to make.

"Mmmm! Those were great! Just like Chao-san used to make them." Konoka praised the chef's skill, and he gave a neat bow at her, and then handed the couple a bag full of meat buns. "That chef was really nice, wasn't he, Secchan?"

"Why yes, he was, Kono-chan." Setsuna responded to her childhood friend. (If you recall from chap 12, Setsuna had to call Konoka 'Kono-chan' at least until Nodoka was back) They haven't had this much fun since their walk in Ostia before Godel started acting up.

Here though, like in Ostia, Setsuna was thinking. It wasn't about her abilities being weakening, but it was about their host. Aristodemus had been nice to them all along, and as she recalls from the news whilst hunted, he had proclaimed that he would not hunt them personally, but lead instead an investigation as to why they were branded criminals. After that, nothing.

_But come to think of it… back in Ostia, I do recall a presence in the ruins when we searched for the gate… and at the ball, with Godel on the scene… I do now recall that he was there. But why? _Setsuna was highly confused with the Strategou's presence all along and not doing anything. _It's easy to understand when you throw politics into the mix… but given that he would have known about Godel's plan, and Fate's presence in the city… he must have expected that we would succeed, or maybe he was-_

"Secchan?" Konoka's voice snapped her out of it, making the swordswoman turn her attention to her.

"Er, yes?"Konoka pointed to a group in front of them. Two tigermen, one human and some sort of gnome was eyeing Setsuna, as if they have seen her before. "Do we know each other?" Setsuna asked first gently at first.

The human stepped in front of them and closed his face with Setsuna. But his grimace turned into a smile after a few seconds. "It's her, guys!" He called to his buddies and they cheered for themselves, leaving the two girls completely confused.

"Wh… what?" Both girls said synchronized. Ergo, at the same time.

"We were one of the first groups that came after you, Setsuna-san!" He extended his hand. "I'm Bob (short for Robert), head of the Vanguard Squire team." Setsuna took the hand.

"Er… Pleased to meet you."

It turned out that no matter what kind of bounty it was, the bounty hunters of the Spartan Hounds had quite the affection for it. The Vanguard Squire team had once gone after Setsuna and Asuna when the bounty had come out, but they got beaten real well.

"I see… so you went after me and Asuna-san when the bounty was released." Setsuna said after they had a few non-alcoholic drinks at the local inn. "But I don't understand… why would you bother inviting me and Kono-chan over for drinks?"

"Hey, we're professional hunters." Bob responded back. "We do not just hunt people down for the fun of it, but we have our honor. We respect prey that's beaten us, and don't go after them again."

"Why is that?"

"Strategou-sama did that once. He was the greatest bounty hunter any of us has ever seen. But he gave up one chase after being beaten by a vampire." Bob responded. "He then made a vow about never going after that vampire again, nor encouraging others to do so."

"Oh?" Konoka said, before suddenly remembering Eva's past that she saw. _That time… could it have been…?_

"_Konoka-san? Setsuna-san?"_ Negi's voice came to them telepathically, giving both of them a minor shock, but not enough for them to react.

"Could you excuse us? We got to go." Setsuna told Bob and the rest of the team, who accepted that fact. Upon leaving the bar, Setsuna contacted Negi. "Negi-sensei. What is it?"

"_I'm going to summon you two. Aristodemus-san wants something."_

"Okay." Setsuna said, as soon afterwards, the circles of the Pactio surrounded them.

_**Meanwhile…**_

"Welcome back online, Rakan-san." Hakase's voice was heard through his new ears. Rakan could at first not move his body, but as time managed to go by, after a few seconds, he managed at least to get his fingers moving at first. His arms followed soon after. As he moved his head around to look around, he saw several blue displays in front of him. So his new body comes with a Heads up Display as well.

"Could I…" Rakan asked as he put his new feet on the ground. "…get a mirror?"

"Certainly." Precia responded, and Chachamaru came forth with a full size mirror for Rakan to see himself in. Rakan was no longer flesh and blood; he was rather wood and metal. His entire head was made of metal, with wood at the jaw ends in order so he could move the mouth, and wood comprised his neck. He noticed he could blink with tiny moveable metal parts and he gave it a test to see if he could. His eyes gave off a bright red glow, not the best colour he could have, but he accepted it for now. The chest was first covered in the same weakly golden coloured metal that the hand he had first seen when he was his normal self, with the living wood underneath, showing at where his abdomen used to be. His legs showed off as well. They were basically tree trunks separated by a large metal ball that was to represent the knee, and held together by metal joints. His feet: he didn't have ten toes anymore, on each foot instead; he had two large on each end on both left and right to stabilize his feet, despite him being literally flat-footed. "What do you think?" Precia asked him gently after he took in the whole new appearance.

"I think…" Rakan started at first and then took a good look up and down on himself. "…I need some clothing."

_**Some time before Konoka and Setsuna got summoned**_

"Of course, I can't show you the blade due to reasons the other Strategous used for putting them away." Aristodemus said as he led them into his library. And as with any great mage or master of knowledge, this place was HUGE. It was also decorated with old items from various time periods, and from various places of the Old World. "But I can provide you with the next best." He continued as he picked out a thick tome and put it on a nearby desk. "A book containing information about it. It was written by Strategou Amaranthus in the 19th century, around the same time Lincoln got shot."

"Who's Lincoln?" Theodora wondered.

"A famous president in the Old world. Abolished slavery where he was from, got famous with all of those who were slaves, got shot in the back of his head on account for being a tyrant after winning a civil war that determined the fate of his nation." Aristodemus told that history lesson rather short.

"Ah." The princess responded on that.

Fate was the one who blurred through the pages of the book. The book was entitled 'Artifacts and Relics of Magical Proportion', and it was in Ancient Greek, a language officially in the Magic world reserved for the great magi. Many items were listed in there: The Cauldron of Plenty, Caliburn, the Spear of Destiny, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Khapesh of Rameses II, along with several other items of great magical potency. Eventually, after about 200 pages, they found a depiction of the sword, only they were two and the small medal which they had seen in Eva's dream was there as well.

'_The Blades of Change are two uniquely made swords named for their ability of turning its blades into any other kind of weapon. There are no known reference of who made the swords, only from the now popular Pactio tale, where, according to legend, the knight hero in the story, Sir Bowen, now canonized in the Magic World, and an army commander who led his men to victory, received each a sword from traveling warriors of the stars, often called among the populace: "Space-elves"._

_The swords themselves are magnificent. The metal from which they are made, is identified as magically enhanced Silver that has been enchanted so that it acts like Mercury, giving it a liquid flexibility, yet maintaining a solid form when not in use. It also connects itself to the wielder's mind, making it normally turn into the weapon the wielder is normally used to, should the wielder be an accomplished battle mage or fighter. Otherwise, it will turn into the weapon that the bearer wish for, with exception to ranged weapons. As there are only two blades in the whole world, to be actually granted one by the current owner of the weapons, ergo the Strategou, is considered being a very good friend of him, or gained enough trust from the Strategou to be thought of as a person to handle a crisis…'_

Fate stopped reading aloud from there, as Negi and Asuna started to yawn, since it was a long journey to the island. Ricardo and Theo were confused regarding the whole situation.

"But still…" Aristodemus thought aloud for them to hear, whilst he and Rachel was leaning against the desk. "…for you guys to actually have one such sword in your possession, it's quite extraordinary really. How come you got to have it in the first place?"

Negi and Asuna took their turns to tell them the whole story of what happened, when Nodoka was first having those nightmares (during which Negi discovered to his shock that Asuna had sent in Nodoka to him whilst he was asleep), when the 'Space-elves' had first arrived, their second attempt, the fight aboard the ship, their withdrawal from it, and Fashtar handing over the small bag of treats. The three politicians and disciple took it all in step by step, before the senior one gave a nod.

"Okay. Now all that is true, thanks to the actual reports of them being sighted, and of course the bag of treats gives further indication that it is true." Aristodemus said calmly. "And me, I'm amazed you managed to get something out of it in the first place."

"Thank you." Asuna said with a bow.

"But then we got this question…" Kotarou wondered aloud. "Who are those guys anyway? We don't know where they come from…"

"Not that it matters." Fate retorted on that note.

"… What species they are, and we don't even know what the hell they are thinking about what to do with us in the first place." Kotarou finished after letting Fate say his.

"You know…" Aristodemus pointed a finger upwards. "I think I have just the thing we need to find that out."

"Really!?" Yue said quite amazed at the capacity this person had."

"Just one catch." Aristodemus said in a tone that killed their enthusiasm. "We're going to need a fortune teller."

"Hey. How about Konoka?" Asuna said. "She dabbles in fortune telling, doesn't she?"

"Oh yeah." Kotarou said. "Konoka-nee-chan might have the means to do it."

"If you insist on her, then I'll oblige." The Strategou said. "Could you get her here, please?"

_**And that brings us to now…**_

"So you want me to use a special item in order to find out info on the 'Space-elves'?" Konoka wondered, having a finger on her chin.

"Quite right." Asuna answered her.

"And the reason I was brought here?" Setsuna wondered, standing next to her Magistra.

"Well, someone has to look after the princess whilst she's in Wonderland." Aristodemus said in a rather cheerful tone.

"Huh?"

"I mean, after all…" Aristodemus managed to procure the Pactio card that she had with Konoka and held it out in his right hand. "…You are her partner."

"WHAT!?" Setsuna screamed out, blushing furiously. "How did you get-"

"My secret!" Aristodemus said, still holding it out far from his body.

"Give it back!" Setsuna screamed out, trying to get it back.

"Don't want to!"

"Aristodemus-san! Not funny!"

"If you want it, you'll have to take it!"

"Gimme!"

"No!"

Setsuna had enough after about two minutes of chasing him around in the library, and decided to charge past him with a shundou, grabbing the card in the process. Aristodemus stood still in his position, his hand clenched into a fist.

"Phew." Setsuna gave a sigh of relief, before her hair suddenly went loose as the hair band have been removed and to add more insult to it, her hair went white an instant later. "Im…possible…" She said as she turned around to see that Aristodemus had taken the hair band from her, holding it in his right hand.

"A fair bargain, I would normally call it. But I call it quits here." Aristodemus said with a smirk.

_Again, Kotarou gave a whistle of impression of the old man's skill._

"Follow me." The Strategou said as he led them further into the library, whilst handing Setsuna back the hair band. He took them to a tightly secured chest and opened it, revealing first a crimson cloth, covering something round.

"Finally, I found you guys." Eva's voice came to them from the left, as a spiritual form of her came out from behind a book shelf. "This place is huge. Haven't seen a library this big since Imma was found."

"Hi, Eva." Aristodemus said dead panned.

"Hi there, Greek." Eva retorted. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes, it has. But let's not focus on you now."

"Oh, nice red colour." Eva commented on his shirt under his waistcoat. "Is it Crimson?"

"No, it's Amaranth." Aristodemus responded back at her whilst looking down at the cloth, willing toget the coversation with Eva over with. "It's my favourite." Aristodemus picked up the clothing and unravelled it slowly, eventually revealing a skull made seemingly out of glass. It was the same size as a normal human's skull, but it had specific carvings as well, which were Mesoamerican.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Yue said as she began to realize what it was. "That can't be…"

"It's the real deal." Aristodemus said gently and seriously. "This is a genuine Mayan Crystal Skull." Upon hearing it, Negi and Eva spit out something from their mouths. "This is what Konoka will use." He handed it over to Konoka, who took it reluctantly.

"Um… What do I do with it?" Konoka asked the elder one.

"You ask it the question you want to know the answer to, and then you will be taken to someone who will hold the answer you want." The Strategou answered.

"Whilst my body here…"

"…will look like you'd be dead." Aristodemus said bluntly. Konoka looked at him with big white eyes. "You asked."

"Um… Right." Konoka said nervously. Looking down on the skull in her hands, Konoka gave a minor gulp before taking a deep breath. "Who are the men who took Nodoka?" She asked the skull. At first, nothing. Then the eyes in the skull began to glow, as if it was staring back at her. Konoka could just stare back at it, for she was entranced by it. A sudden jolt, and then, darkness…

"Well, that's done." Aristodemus caught Konoka's body as she fell down, still holding the skull. Her eyes were open, but lifeless. "Now we can do nothing but wait, I'm afraid."

"So…" Asuna said, confused. "What should we do now?"

"Well, this usually takes hours, so there's nothing we can do except doing normal stuff until she wakes up." The Strategou responded at that, before checking his own cell phone to see a text message. "And now, I got to go. Precia just informed me that Jack is in his new body, and I'd like to see him now. Excuse me." Aristodemus said, before turning around to see his old friend. "You can take your time to do other stuff."

"Well then," Ricardo said with a grin. "I feel like hitting the gym here in Ithaca. Anyone care to join me?"

"Oh, count me in." Kotarou said, following after.

"I'd just look around town, myself." Fate said going in the same direction as them.

"Asuna, are you coming?" Negi asked as he followed them together with Theo and Rachel. Setsuna was carrying Konoka to the nearest couch.

"I'll be there. Just need to check on something." Asuna responded back, going actually in the same direction as Aristodemus.

_**Some time later, down on the first floor…**_

"Aristodemus-san." Asuna called to him, as he was going for the door. She was out of breath when she reached him.

"What is it?" He asked her nicely.

"I just…want to know… if you know me from… before…" Asuna said breathing heavily. She repositioned herself. "I've been meaning to talk to you about it…" She noticed that Aristodemus' face had turned a bit sour. She realized what it was about. "Yes, I remember everything."

"How long?" He asked her.

"Since the World Peace Festival in Ostia." She responded.

"How come?"

"Fate removed the lock from me."

"How much do you remember?"

"Not much, really." Asuna said. "I'm supposed to remember everything, but it's all scrambled. It comes and goes from me. I keep getting dreams about my past and then it just goes into my subconscious again…" She clasped her head. "Argh, it's all frustrating…"

"I see your point in all this." Aristodemus said gently. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, last night I got this dream about Arcadia. And I realized something when I got here: I've been here before."

"Not surprising, given your real age." Aristodemus said.

"No, I remember that I've been in this mansion. The town, the people here, even you." Asuna said upset. "I've seen you before, and it pains me to not remember exactly how."

"Well, I guess I could tell you." Aristodemus said after a sigh. "During the war, after Nagi-kun saved you in Ostia, your sister brought you here for safe-keeping, disguising you as a war-orphan." He informed her, and she nodded in return. "Also, your personal attendant who had been disguised as your uncle gave me a letter from Arika, confirming who you really were."

"And you took me in." Asuna accused him.

"I did." Aristodemus didn't even attempt to hide it. "You were… a bit of a bookworm. You always went to my library in order to read a book you liked, and you didn't talk with the other kids. It was not as I expected things to be."

Asuna imagined her current self surrounded by books, just like Nodoka, and she tried to suppress a laughter coming forth. "I'm more into practical things now."

"Well, back then, you once found a book on Muay Boran, and you read through it all. Afterwards, you managed to beat Rachel in a fight afterwards." Aristodemus said, chuckling.

"I beat Rachel-chan?" Asuna said shocked at his words.

"Yes. She was teasing some kids from Ostia, and you didn't like it. And considering that you managed to beat her in your very first fight, after trying Muay Boran for the first time…"

"You began to train me properly."

"A little. I kept you mainly to Muay Boran and it's modern side, Muay Thai. And we also had a lot of talks together. We used to talk about everything. Hobbies, interests, even age." Aristodemus said cheerfully, remembering the good times he had with her.

"Oh?" Asuna suddenly got a jolt in her head, gaining some memories about him. "I just got something." She informed him, gaining his attention again. "You said something about your age… it was… You once…"

Aristodemus realized what she was on about, and he moved in to whisper in her ear. "I died once…"

"Ah, that's right!" Asuna said, putting her fist in her free hand. "You-"

…

…

…

"EEEH!? YOU WERE DEAD ONCE!?" Asuna screamed at him.

"Well, yes I was, long time ago." He said, maintaining his posture.

"But wouldn't you be Immortal, then!?" Asuna asked the questions loudly. "You know, never die again, live forever young, that sort of stuff…?"

"What do you mean 'forever young'?" Aristodemus gave Asuna a bump on the head. "I'm old. Heck, I was old when I became all that."

"So, you are Immortal?" Asuna asked him again after she calmed down.

"I'll leave to you to decide."

"But how old would you really be then?" Asuna asked him. "If you were really Immortal. Then it wouldn't surprise me if you were at least as old as Eva-chan."

"I thought I told you my real age once during the time of the war." Aristodemus said leaning forward to her face, giving her a mental 'eep'.

"No… I can't remember." Asuna responded bluntly. "It's all blurry for me right now."

Aristodemus merely smiled and poked her forehead. "Then go back to being a bookworm and solve this riddle: 'I died a year past after the Medeans took the Hot Gates with the bow and the spear.' Can you do that for me?"

"Uh…sure." Asuna said, and upon response, the Strategou vanished in an instant. She remembered something again. "WAIT! What do you mean with that riddle!?" She was in firm belief that her old acquaintance was still in the mansion. "Who were the Medeans? Where were the Hot Gates!? And what year was it in the first place!?"

Note: Asuna is not specialized in History, it would seem.

**

* * *

A/N: I'll be taking a break here. I need to find a job pronto. That riddle is also for you readers, so if you think you know the answer, then post it in your review. The one who gets wholly, gets to have a newly made OC of theirs put into the story when we get back to Nodoka. We're not going to be on Earth with her, and you will get information on how to make the OC in the next chapter. The character sheet is this:**

**Name: **

**Race: **

**Age: (try something reasonable for once, please)**

**Languages:**

**Class: (Think D&D, mages and sorcerers not allowed)**

**Equipment: **

**Special condition: (if any)**

**Personality:**

**Religion: (Confusing now, but you'll learn)**

**Animal Companion: (You don't need to fill in this)**

**I only have one condition for you: You may NOT use the Internet. The Internet makes things too easy. Until then, see you.**


	19. Adventures of the girls

**A/N: ****This is the truth: I'm taking part in making a Negima Sim date game. We're lacking a designer, a coder and a programmer. Anyone feel like they want to contribute, drop me a signal. **

* * *

Konoka felt odd. Her astral form, which she thought to be her real body, with the clear exception that she was naked (rare sight indeed) and she was stuck in some kind of tunnel. It was brightly coloured, with twisting forms, and changing colours every two seconds. In all her time alive, Konoka hasn't felt this weird before. Is this what the ancient Mayan went through when they consorted the Skull? A bright tunnel of magical energy which surges through the user's body and then somehow exhausts it, only to have it refilled an instant later?

It felt like pain, that. And then it struck her. Konoka was no idiot; she just loved to play that part. The skull uses up all the magic energy within, and the tunnel recharges her in order to that she might use it without getting burned out. No wonder she was chosen for this. Anyone could use the skull, but she had enough to make the suffering easier.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Konoka fell down into a dark room, with very little light inside. When she rose from her fallen position, she found herself in what could be passed as another vast library. Shelves were walls, where books, scrolls, tablets, and other pieces of writing, in more than a dozen different languages, none she recognized at all, flew around, sorting themselves on the shelves. On the ground, the lighting was revealed to be blue lamps, with fluid inside that glowed brightly. She was standing on one, which is how she found the lighting. On the wall, where there weren't any shelves, torches burned, helping anybody find what they would seek. But they burned green fire, not the usual red or yellow like on Earth.

She heard a page turn, and she went to look in that direction. Passing two pillars that held two skulls with emeralds in their socket, and carved with unique markings on them, she found a desk, where one of the 'Space-elves' sat. He was of the middle-aged category, wearing an elegant robe, its colour shifting constantly from red to blue, to green and all the other colours she knew. She could have sworn she saw the Amaranth colour as well, but she passed it for just being one of the colours that came to him. The robe didn't have any sleeves like the cloaks back on Earth, but it had a hood similar to what she was used to. He was reading definitely a book from Earth, as she recognized the Arabic script. But that he read out the words aloud was what made her realize that he was reading a copy of the Qu'ran. The book was large, having beautiful Arabic decorations to it. From what she has learned of it when she once tried to read it, (a Japanese translation of it, that Nodoka once read) he was in on chapter 2, verse 190-195. (1)

"The doors are locked." He suddenly spoke up in fluent Japanese, making her go stiff, and realizing he was addressing her without having to look from the book. "The windows are barred." Konoka quickly hid behind one of the pillars with the skull on top. "My Flameskulls doesn't seem to have woken up." Her sight suddenly went up to the skull on the pillar. "The squeaky floorboards haven't." Konoka looked down at the floor and saw that it was old wood, with bent planks and covered in magnificent made carpets. "I doubt that you're a ghost, and gods do not generally present themselves with such niceties."

Konoka's eyes went wide at that sentence. _This guy knows about gods' existence!?_

"You could of course," The Space-elf continued. "…be Death, the anthropomorphic personification. But even He does not bother with being this nice. Besides, I'm feeling quite well." Finally, he looked up from the book, and scanned the hall with his blood red eyes. (2) After finding no one there, he gave a small sigh. "You can come out. I can't talk to you if you're going to lurk in the dark."

Realizing that he knew where she was, Konoka gave in to his request, and stepped out from her hiding place. "Hello." She greeted him.

"Hello." He returned the word.

_**Back on Earth…**_

"And that's the riddle I have to solve." Asuna finished what she told the others as they walked down the streets of Ithaca.

"I died a year past after the Medeans took the Hot Gates…" Ricardo repeated part of it, putting a hand on his chin.

"Do you know anything of that, Ricardo-san?" Negi asked the senator.

"Nope. I don't know anything about Medeans." The senator said in return. I may have studied the history of Mundus Magicus, but there is no mention of Medeans in them."

Asuna groaned at that. "Mou, how am I going to find out?"

"That's easy." Eva said walking next to her. "You just decipher the riddle piece by piece." The vampire silhouette had little smug grin on her face.

"Eva-chan, do you know how old he is?" Asuna asked the little girl, holding her hands in prayer form, in a vain attempt to get her to answer the riddle.

"I always knew the he was old, but hearing that…" Eva made a chuckle. "…makes me know fully his age. And that is what scares me." She said that last sentence with no smug on her face and her eyes closed.

"How so?"

"Think for a minute." Eva instructed the younger ones. "He referred to a specific year, in a specific area, in an identified time period." Eva pointed out. "Hot Gates, for example. It's a well known old place in the Old World. You just need the right translation of the name."

"So it would be European ancient history?" Asuna asked to confirm it.

"Yes." Eva responded. "Hold on. Let me check with him to see any more specific." Eva closed her eyes as they walked the streets. She had a smile on her face whilst having her eyes closed. Then she opened them again after about two minutes. "He said that the Medeans were led by 'He who rules Heroes'. Sneaky bastard. He seems to like making riddles." (7)

Asuna groaned once again. "As if that would help me. Fate?" She turned to the white haired one in their group.

"I'd rather not." Averruncus responded, much to her despair. "If I told you the real answer, then Aristodemus-san would not be happy about it. Plus, he is doing this to help you remember. Something that I myself would prefer."

"Yeah, yeah." Asuna responded. "I'm needed for the whole world destruction thing…" She said sarcastically. "I'm getting annoyed at this. I can't solve that riddle."

"Well, not directly, princess." Eva retorted. She was fully aware that Asuna had gotten her memories back. "This is what libraries are good for. How about you go over there first and read a book just like Honya does in normal times?"

"Nah." Asuna responded back at the vampire. "I need some exercise after being stuck on a ship that nearly crashed to the ground."

_Hakase sneezed in the lab._

"Oh yeah, that reminds me." Asuna spoke up, addressing Negi instead of the others. "How come you're like this, Negi? I thought you'd be worried to death about Honya-chan?"

"Ah." Negi managed to get out of his mouth first and put a hand on the back on his head. "That's been taken care of really. You see, back when Fate started training me, I didn't really progress very well. I got hit all the time and I got distracted always by thoughts of how Nodoka-san is doing."

"One day in the resort, we others decided to do something about it." Fate continued the story. "After a few hours of discussion and votes on how to handle with it, the notion came that one hour a day whilst training, Negi-kun was to be thinking on how Miyazaki is doing."

"Once we tried that, I progressed a lot faster than expected." Negi finished on that note. "We call it 'Mourning Time' and it is set 14:00 every day in the resort, as we start at morning every day when we enter." (Please confirm this from chapter 12)

"Ah." Kotarou said, having been quiet this whole time. "So that's why you seem okay when we talk about it."

"Sorry about that." Negi apologized.

"Ah, here we are." Ricardo said as they arrived outside a large building with pillars similar to what the Strategou's mansion. The exception was that the sign said 'Gymnasium' in Latin. "This is it."

They received quite a shock when they opened the door to the place. "Whoa."

_**On the outskirts of Ithaca (**__**3**__**)**_

"Come on, now…" he waited patiently for his prey to arrive. He has planned three days for this to happen and now he finally got the chance to catch this wyvern. Tourists had complained that there was a wyvern on the loose, stealing their food and on occasion, harming the tourists, having them leave Arcadia and tell about the bad experience. That meant fewer tourists, which meant no income, which meant that Ithaca wouldn't be able to pay taxes to the Council.

Of course, this was how he gained his income. He was a Monster Hunter. This is how the Guild gains their income. For being an NGO, the Spartan Hounds was very loosely formed. The Monster Hunter division was one of the biggest, which was part of the Bounty Hunter department. But the Monster Hunters focused on hunting beasts and then selling parts of their catches to various traders and craftsmen who could make something useful to him. This wyvern had a special tail which produced special venom, which if turned into gas, could paralyze anybody who inhaled it.

Right now, though, he had to make sure that his trap would work. It was a simple one, using nets and wing shredders. Using scented meat as bait, the whole area of a diameter of 10 metres, was covered in motion detection magic, specifically designed for this. If something bigger than a horse would come into the area to try the meat, the wing shredders would lock on to the target and fire at the flanks of the beast, ripping into its wings, making them unable to carry its weight in flight. From there, a net would come up from underneath, and catch the wyvern.

"Ah, there you are…" he said as he spotted the wyvern come flying down. They do have a strong sense of smell. The wyvern in this case, was the size of a horse, not counting the wings. It was scaly like lizards, having light brown colour to it. It also had a mane to it, like a lion, and it had a vicious looking tail shaped like a scorpion's. It had a long snout and sharp teeth that ripped through flesh. It did however, have poor eyesight, which was in his favour. "Come on... just a few more steps…" He wished for the wyvern as it had landed on its only pair of feet.

The wyvern was a bit suspicious eyeing the meat on the plate between the trees. Cautiously, it moved in for the plate, but it jerked its head when a sound that signalled the trap was made. It backed off away instantly, avoid the traps completely. "Damnit!" he cursed as he drew his blades, a pair of short swords. "Plan B."

He rushed at the wyvern instead, hoping to catch his attention, but the beast turned away from him and flew off in a random direction. After following after on foot, he stopped realizing where it was headed. "Oh no, that's the Market! I could lose my bonus for this!" Having said that, he rushed off as fast as he could in order to catch up.

_**Over at Konoka…**_

"Well, well, well." The apparent arch-mage said (Konoka assumed he was that due to his robe) as Konoka came out from her hiding place fully. He didn't mind that she was naked, but it was something inconvenient. "I didn't really expect someone to come here during this time." He continued as he rose from his desk and walked up to her. It was now that she could see that he was not a pushover in a physical perspective. He had quite a muscular body, roughly the same size as Ricardo back on Earth. And underneath the robe that had a long slit in order for him to use his arms, she spotted a straight sword at his belt on his right side, since he was probably left handed.

"You weren't expecting somebody?" Konoka asked him.

"No. And even if I did, I certainly didn't expect them in the state you are in." He referred to her being naked and all that. Konoka gave a slight shriek whilst covering herself, but he gave a snap of his fingers.

Before Konoka knew it, she was dressed in an elegant Chinese monk robe, in the same style that Buddhist monks had, with some added features. She also wore loose fitting pants in the same appearance of a dougi, whilst being barefooted. And she wore a neat cloak, with draped around her shoulders and ending at her feet behind her, in the same form as a ragged mantle. "Um… thanks?"

"You're welcome. But I take it that your friends are not either used to having clothes in their astral shape." He responded back to her in a flat tone.

"How did you know that?" Konoka asked him.

"You just told me."

That answer sent her flailing for a few seconds. "But," He continued. "What business do you have with me anyway? I can accept that you are a student of Magic, given your age and that you used a Kenashteh spell to get to me. What is it, help with your homework?"

"Um well, I do hav-" Konoka suddenly shook her head. "Wait, what's a Kenashteh spell?"

"Ah, you do not know?" He asked her gently this time. Konoka shook her head, which he responded first with a sigh. "There is a spell known as the Rite of AshKente, which practically brings Death himself to you, and you can ask him any question related to magic. The Kenashteh is quite the opposite. It brings you instead, or at least your astral form, to the person who has the most and best answers to the questions you have."

"Which is good for me." Konoka said at that being said. "I got questions regarding you Space-elves."

"Space-elves?" The Arch-mage said profounded at the name for his species. "What kind of ridiculous name is that?"

"Sorry." Konoka went to hide behind the pillar. If he could spot her without looking and give her clothing with a snap of fingers, what could he do if he got destructive? "What do you call yourselves?"

"We are Githyanki. It translates as 'Sons of Gith'. But on the Kenashteh, as the one you were brought to, I'm bound to answer all of your questions until you are satisfied." The newly named Githyanki said, holding a more authoritive position.

"Um…" Konoka started. "How about we introduce ourselves before we get any where first?" She made a proper bow in front of him. "I'm Konoe Konoka, of the Fujiwara Clan of Japan."

The Githyanki mage made a similar bow to her. "I'm Ashracai, Arch-mage and second-in-command of the Imperium of Gith."

_**Over at the sports girls and Cheerleaders**_

The sports girls and the cheerleaders along with Ayaka were walking down a wide street in Ithaca, admiring the city's style. There were several booths that sold various items. Most of it was jewellery and clothing. But given that it was in ancient Persian style, very rare and also quite expensive in the Old world at least, it was quite prestigious.

"Amazing." Ayaka said as she looked at a bundle of Imperial Purple silk for clothing. "How much for this?"

"What would you like it to be fashioned for?" The shopkeeper, a half human, half snake, popularly called Yuan-ti in Arcadia thanks to a certain game in the Old world, asked her in return. She had somehow overcome her accent with the tongue.

"Hmmm…" Ayaka thought about it for a moment. "Do you have choices really? I don't know what you have here."

"Oh, you're Veteres?" the shopkeeper responded. "Hold on, I'll get the catalogue. You wouldn't mind signing this, would you?" She held up a note book for Ayaka to write her name in.

"No, of course not." Ayaka wrote her name in wondrous written English, with her surname after her given name. After putting the book next to the cash register, she was meaning "It was a book containing your customers, right?"

"Actually, it was an autograph book. Veteres people are rare in the Magic World. Most of you don't know about us so having one from the Old world here is quite a sight."

"Iinchou." Ako called to the blonde girl further away from the booth. "Come on, you got to see this!"

"Awww…" The shopkeeper sounded disappointed. "You need to see your friends." But she turned cheerful again a beat later and handed over the silk to Ayaka. "Here, take it. It's a gift. Least I could do for you."

"Oh, I can't take this." Ayaka tried to defend herself from taking the silk.

"Do so. I handle this booth by myself. I'm my own boss and I don't take crap from anyone." The Yuan-ti retorted, putting a hand on her quite generous chest.

"Um, well, thank you. I'll see what I can do with this." Ayaka waved goodbye to the shopkeeper and followed the sports girls, accompanied by the cheerleaders who had just finished talking to Akira about their adventure here last time.

"Oh, so Negi-kun is Nagi-san…" Misa said, as she had been told about the age changing pills.

"Does that mean that that is what Negi-kun will look like when he grows up?" Madoka said, realizing that they had a BIG chance to score huge points with him now and also remembering Misa's plan for him.

"Sorry I'm late." Ayaka came, holding the silk bundle in her arms. "Shopkeeper wanted to give me the silk rather than I buy it instead."

"Whoa, big bundle." Yuna said astounded at the sheer amount of silk. "Do you need help with that?"

"No, I'll live." The class representative responded. "But what did you want to show me?"

"This place." Makie pointed of course to a large building in a Gothic design with the pointed arches, the rib vaults and the ever occurring flying buttresses on the outside, giving the building a more religious outlook, since most churches and abbeys at least in England was built in the Gothic architecture, but there was a sign on the outside that told them the name of the place.

"Museum Aevum." Yuna repeated the name. "It's… I know it's a museum, but um… crap, my Latin needs work."

"It's 'Museum of Life', Yuna. Well, it only says Museum Life, but you'll understand." Ako said, having paid more attention to her studies better than the basketball player.

"But why come here?" Misa asked. "To this place?"

"Where else to go if you want to know history?" Makie responded. "I think I've found my calling."

"Really?" Misa asked with a hint of sarcasm in her tone. "Baka Pink has found her calling for studying? And it's history of all things?"

Makie pouted at that. "Anyways, let's go in!"

_**The fight gym**_

"Whoa."

'Whoa' was the right word. Unlike what they had seen in gyms, this was more focused on combat rather than weightlifting. Everywhere, people that were in the Spartan Hounds, fought with either hand-to-hand or with weapons of their choice. They didn't fight each other, but the speed with which they trained was either enhanced by magic, or they had great speed on their own. They fought spirits held inside the gym of life-sized dummies, which were installed there by the place's magic to act as sparring partners. And in the centre of the whole place, there was a minor arena where one could fight another in. There were some people cheering someone on down there.

"About time. Take a pad and get to it." Rachel said, having leaded them to the place. "I'm just going to watch who is fighting."

"Okay." Asuna answered and the smaller one, surprisingly shorter even than Setsuna went off before she could say that she wanted to watch too. "So, what do you guys want to do?"

"I think I'll watch too." Fate said as well.

"Yeah, we're much stronger than the rest of these guys already." Kotarou said, walking off to follow the little Hound. It didn't take long for the rest to join. The small arena was simply a deep pit, with ladders rather than gates. There was sand at the bottom, so that the steel walls would be considered the hard thing to hit. The two combatants didn't seem to mind, because they were hammering at each other in the centre of the 40 feet in diameter wide pit.

"Oh, Rose is on a roll today!" A spectator said next to them.

"Rose?" Eva wondered. The spectator pointed to one of the current combatants. He was tall and lean, and slightly muscular. A man in his early twenties, he was bare-chested as the rules stated for men in the arena. He obviously was nicknamed 'Rose' due to him having tattoos of the mentioned flower on his body, covering him in various places. Most notable, he had a black and a white one on his cheeks. He also had two short swords, European ones as his weapons.

"That's Rose. That's his fifth victory today." The spectator continued. "I wonder if someone will take him down today."

"I feel like entering now." Kotarou said, starting to take off his jacket.

"How about you, Negi-kun?" Fate inquired. "You could put what you've learned to use in this."

"Hmmm, I feel rather tempted myself…" Eva's silhouette form said too, whilst Negi was thinking about entering himself.

"Uh, guys?" Asuna's voice called to them, catching their attention. "Do you mind if I enter? I would like to try something."

"Remembered something?" Fate asked her.

"More like been told by Aristodemus-san." Asuna retorted. "I know what I'm doing on this one."

"Okay then." Eva said. "Show us what you've been told that you remember."

_**At the marketplace…**_

Natsumi, Chizuru and Zazie were walking through the marketplace on their own. It was quite the sight for them, as humans and indigenous people from all over the Magic World were standing at booths and in stores, haggling over prices, some in success to great profit, others, well, not so lucky. And everywhere, they saw wares from both the Magic World and the Old World being sold. Strangely enough, the Old World stuff fetched the higher prices. It was odd though that it was sold here though.

"Oh look!" Chizuru pointed to a wagon that had a side that could be opened up from the left side. "I wonder what that person sells." The trio came to find that the owner couldn't be older than twenty years old, maybe nineteen. He wore rectangular glasses and he had brown hair. If it wasn't for the European broadsword on his right side and the Japanese Tanto on the back of his waist, he would pass for a normal person.

"Excuse me," Natsumi called to the merchant and he caught her call as they approached. "You don't mind selling your merchandise? We want to see what stuff is sold here in Arcadia."

"If you've come for items coming only from Arcadia, I recommend other stores." The merchant responded gently. "But I can offer you a bit of everything."

This one's merchandise was different. Each item was unique and had a different purpose than the other. There were weapons, guns (Modern), small gadgets in the shapes of balls, discs and other miscellaneous items. He also had bags, packs and containers for sale too, though it was only the small ones. Some bags could be worn at the waist, which was convenient for journeys.

"Wow, that's a lot." Chizuru said a little amazed. "Do you buy these yourself at places where they're cheap and then sell them here?"

"No." The merchant said. "I make these items. I'm an Artificer. (4) We make things by ourselves, and then sell them to wherever it is wanted."

"So you're not one of the town merchants here?" Natsumi asked him.

"No, I'm a travelling merchant. I buy things here and there, and I sell things here and there. Simple as that. Even though I gain less than the other merchants who has a store."

"Cool." Zazie eventually said, shocking both the flat-chested girl, and the big-chested girl. First time they heard her talk.

"Zazie-chan…" Chizuru asked the mime, who turned to her. "…did you just say something?" Zazie nodded at her. But the buzz of the marketplace died rather shortly as people began to run away from them.

"Why is everyone running?" Natsumi asked, while the merchant took a look from behind them. It was big, scaly and flying right towards them.

"Get down!" He threw himself onto Natsumi and Chizuru as the beast flew over them and wrecking the top part of the wagon. Zazie just jumped aside, over the big creature. And considering that it was flying in 30 miles/hour, straightforward, _that_ was something.

"What was that?" Chizuru asked lying on the ground, before noticing that the merchant had in the hurry of getting down on the ground to safety, had accidentally crashed head first into her chest. He was still inside that massive cleavage. "My, aren't we a bit aggressive?"

"Huh?" The adolescent man raised his head from her bosom and found his position. Blushing quite furiously, he jumped back from her flailing an arm in front of his face. "Sorry, I didn't mean too!"

Chizuru gave a small giggle. He was like Kotarou, only older. "That's fine. I'm…" She tried to find the right words without having to confuse him. "…quite adept at suffocating a man down there." Of course, that left the man with some rather widened eyes. Then she realized her position, since as she was sitting up, she was revealing her… you know.

"I didn't see!" The merchant said as she covered herself. _I did not see white striped panties with pink, I did not see white striped panties with pink…_

"As much as both of you are embarrassed…" Natsumi began. "But do you know what it was that came at us?"

"It was a Sting-tail Wyvern. Their venom can paralyze even a small dragon." The merchant said as he rose up to find his wagon destroyed. Now he had to pay for repairs. But he did spot whoever was responsible because an old friend of his was seen running afterwards. "Vito…"

"Hey, Andreas!" Vito, a young man in his early twenties as well, being lean and muscular, but not too muscular, came running in a cloak that covered most of his outfit underneath and shouted at the merchant in English. He spotted the wrecked wagon, and he felt a sweat drop coming down his temple. "I take it that the…"

"The wyvern passed through here." Andreas, the merchant finished that for him. He picked out a mechanical crossbow, with a circular magazine holding the bolts, and had the theme of dragons on it, and tossed it to Vito who had stopped. "Here. You'll need this."

Vito didn't have time to thank him, because whenever his merchant friend had given him something to use, he always and ALWAYS demanded a cut of the prize of whatever happened. "I'll give you 10 percent of the money."

"50 percent; look at my wagon." Andreas gestured to his destroyed wagon. "How am I supposed to pay for this?"

"15." Vito retorted.

"40."

"25."

"Deal. And you're buying drinks." Andreas settled on that one. "Be glad that I'm not charging you with the repairs."

"Fine." Vito said a bit upset. "Where did it go?"

"Follow the screams." Andreas noted to the screams of terrified citizens. Vito took off running, head on for twenty meters and then turned to the right. "Geez…" Andreas gave a sigh.

"Who was that?" Natsumi asked the slightly depressed merchant.

"That was Vito. A friend of mine. We make deals with each other from time to time. I buy the stuff he sells so I can make items to sell, and he gets my weapons and gadgets at a discount." Andreas responded. He started to pick up the parts of his wagon that had come off when the wyvern passed by. When he was going to pick a piece of wood, a female hand connected with his.

"Do you mind if we help?" Chizuru asked gently, with a smile that was practically irresistible for any guy. "You wouldn't mind giving us a discount if we helped you fix your wagon?"

Andres suddenly felt like he was as red as ripe tomatoes at her nice request. "Um... Sure."

_**Back at the girls in the museum…**_

The Museum of Life was far from what they had expected. Its halls were devoid of visitors, there was no guard, or any receptionists. The whole place certainly did fill out the Gothic appearance, but it was of the horror movie style, with exception that there was no lightning. In the main hall or the entrance hall, there was the wax figure of a relatively small dragon in comparison to what their size really were. It was large enough to impress visitors, but not too large as the building itself wasn't the size of a palace. Unlike Mesembria, the buildings here in Ithaca were small, possibly due to a smaller population.

"Hello!" Yuuna gave a shout into the building, only to have it echo throughout the place. The whole building was practically abandoned.

"No one's here." Sakurako said disappointed at that there was no one there.

"Waste of time if you ask me." Ayaka said and headed back for the door.

"Nope." Yuuna said, holding a pose with Makie. "This simply means that we can go wild in here!" The two sport girls went running further into the great halls of the museum. They were shortly accompanied by an excited Misa who was known for being a trouble maker as well in 3-A.

"Hey, wait!" Ayaka handed the bundle of silk to Akira and followed them together with Madoka. The others followed afterwards, mainly because Ako was worried about her two friends getting injured, Akira because she was determined to hand back the silk to Ayaka, and Sakurako because she didn't want to be left behind.

After about ten minutes, Ayaka caught up with the sport girls who had run off. "Don't… run off like that… What am I going to tell Negi…-sensei if you got hurt?"

"Come on, Iinchou." Yuuna said, leaning on a door that they had stopped by. "Haven't you ever wanted to go wild inside a museum when there's no one there?"

"I follow the rules that are here, Yuuna-san." Ayaka retorted at her. "There are reasons why there are rules in museums."

"But right now, we're the only ones hereeee-aaaaaaah!" Yuuna had opened the door and fell into the room on her left side. "Owww…"

"Are you okay, Yuuna?" Makie was almost immediately at her side.

"Yeah…" Yuuna said weakly. "I just slipped, that's all." A second after she finished that, a light showed up at the far end of the room, showing a gold tablet, surprising the girls.

It didn't take long before the rest of the lights turned on. They revealed a massive collection of weapons, armor, jewellery, books and scrolls, clothing, and at least hundreds of miscellaneous small items that could be fitted in a palm. There was a wardrobe of a very large size in the far corner of the room. In the middle of the farthest wall, the gold tablet hangs on a larger stone table, with a small piece from the centre out of place, lying on the table in front of it. The items around was from all around the Old world, and from every time period, starting with the Antique world, but the Antique items were from the Mediterranean, with swords from Greeks, Romans, and Celts, with armor made of bronze and an old Laconian helmet in bronze, battered and almost shattered, lay in its own separate glass container. They recognized several Asian weapons and armor, along with talismans from Buddhist temples, including Katanas, a Khris dagger from Indonesia, and other swords that derive from the Far East. But the weird thing is that each item inside the room was in perfect condition, as if they were made recently. Recently as in made this year.

"Whoa…" Makie said eyeing the vast collection.

"Amazing…" Yuuna followed. Ako's eyes turned to a sign on the door that Yuuna had opened, and this was not what she had expected.

"Personal Collection?" Ako read aloud from the sign. "This must be Aristodemus-san's own collection of items."

"Well," Misa said, highly impressed of the sight. "He's been to a lot of places."

"And apparently to a lot of time periods too." Akira said, handing the bundle over to Ayaka.

"Hey, do you think we'll find something cool in here?" Sakurako asked.

"You're not thinking about…"

"Come on!" Yuuna said. "This guy must surely be the strongest person on the planet after Rakan-san! Looking at this place, what are the odds that he wouldn't have some powerful item after a long time of adventure?"

Regardless of what was being said to argue against that, the girls still investigated the large number of items. Yuuna looked near the corner where the wardrobe was, whilst the cheerleaders inspected the neat Mongolian lamellar armour with the bow, and Ako and Makie along with Ayaka looked at the shiny trinkets that were in the glass containers, rings, necklaces and small statues in blue green colour. Akira's own eyes went to the gold tablet, with the missing piece. Why was the last piece not in the tablet? But looking at the tablet, she could see that it was Egyptian. She couldn't read hieroglyphs, but she at least understood where to put it. Akira decided mentally to put the missing piece back where it belonged.

_Let's see… this must be the side to fit with the others… _Akira looked at the side with hieroglyphs. _So if I put it there… _The swimmer put the piece right where it was supposed to be, and as she finished the tablet, it glowed brightly in its own colour, making her step back from it and catching the other's attention. The glow eventually died off after ten seconds. "My fault."

That notion went away as swiftly as it came. At least they didn't make something really magical go off. Nothing from elsewhere in the museum suggested it. "Hey look guys!" Yuuna called to them. She was holding a big Greek Aspis shield with bronze coating on it and a red Lambada on it, being battered and all, and she was also holding a tall spear a foot taller than her, and she was wearing also the Laconian helmet. "What do I look like?"

"You look ridiculous." Madoka answered bluntly.

"Ridiculous?" Yuuna responded at her, before starting. "THIS IS-" She stopped that because a hand just came crashing down on her head, making the helmet press harder against her.

"Don't use these things for fun." A stern woman's voice came from behind her.

_Crap, we're found out!_

_**Konoka and Ashracai**_

In the last few hours that they had chatted, Konoka had at first fainted when she heard she was facing 2nd in charge of the enemies that had kidnapped Nodoka. After being out for about 20 minutes, the two of them talked about magic and differences of their cultures like it was nothing. On the matter of families, Ashracai's race didn't have the idea that two lovers would raise the child between them. Instead, they had hatcheries, where volunteers that wanted to breed, would leave the resulting offspring at the place, so that someone else could come pick it up for a price. And given that he himself was a wealthy man from status and investments, Ashracai had many 'children'.

On the other hand, the Githyanki magic didn't have the concept of Pactio. They did have the idea of warriors defending magi, but they never really understood the full concept of it, because most of the time, they mostly cared only about their own possessions rather than the fellow next to him. In magic however, Githyanki was a bit more aggressive, having a larger variety of combat spells than humans, and little in the way of normal life. But they compensated for that with psychical abilities. There was a huge variety of 'Esper' powers as Konoka dubbed it, but there were mainly three features: Telekinesis, Teleportation and Telepathy. Ashracai, being something called 'Composite', had all of these abilities, but it made him also a Jack-of-all-Trades.

"So, you humans can use telekinesis, teleportation and telepathy through magic instead of your own mind?" Ashracai asked the little apprentice, who nodded at him. "That's interesting. We don't have such things. And for us, magic is very rare in comparison to you humans."

"What do you mean?" Konoka asked him.

"Rather than being one in a million," Ashracai answered her. "We githyanki only have one in ten million who is a mage." (5) The elder master went back to his desk and began reading the Qu'ran again, though silently this time. "On another matter, I do find your world rather interesting myself."

"Really? We aren't really something in comparison to other civilizations out there…" Konoka answered meakly.

"True, but your world is more technologically advanced than other human worlds we've encountered." Ashracai said bluntly, shocking her. Before she could ask, he continued. "We have met humans many times before. But every other world we've met was in the Middle Ages in comparison to you. And they didn't even have magic. Except for one world, but they called it 'Bending' instead. (6)"

"I guess I must take your-" She stopped as she noticed something very familiar lying next to the great book. It was what she had seen before, on a certain friend's hand. It was the Daemonia Comptina. "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT!?" She screamed at him, waking the Flameskulls up and having their green flame burn brightly and flying around their master.

"Let us at him, Master!" The two flying things begged of Ashracai. "Let us have him scream in pain and terror before he is sent to-"

"You two will go back to sleep now!" Ashracai hissed at them angrily. "It's just someone who cast a Kenashteh spell." On that, the Flameskulls went back to their resting places and slept again. "I take it that you are aware of this ring?" He asked the shaken girl.

"Yes, yes!" Konoka nodded rapidly fast. "It can tell the bearer the true name of whoever you ask." She answered once she had calmed down. "But how come you got hold of it?"

"Well, I got it to examine after an incident with a young girl-" Konoka was immediately onto him.

"Did she have purple hair?"

"Yes."

"Blue eyes?"

"Yes."

"Shy and hides them behind her bangs?"

"She does that? I had no idea."

"Got a card that has her on it along with a number of books?" She asked the final question. Ashracai responded by holding up the mentioned thing. This shook her to the core. Nodoka was nearby on the planet, and she was still alive. "Where is she?"

Ashracai felt a bit reluctant to tell her, but he gave in due to the rules of the spell. "Follow me."

**

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A/N: I can't believe it. I never thought it would actually happen to me.**

**I need a part 2… T_T…**

**1 For those who study the Koran, you would recognize them as the "Sword Verses" which is the Koran's perspective on how war should be made. One shall only fight those who fight you, but not be aggressive. One should slay the enemy wherever you find them, but this was made during the time under which the Muslims were under siege, as the verse continues: "and drive them out from which they drove you out." However, the verse after that says: "But should they cease to fight, remember that God is merciful." I for one find these verses to be vital for at least honorable warfare, even though it mentions nothing about looting or bans looting.**

**2 Githyanki normally have black beads, but some exceptions have red coloured pupils on a white eye ball, much in the same design as humans.**

**3 This was requested by a friend of mine over Skype. He is a bit obsessive about Kazumi, and he asked me to put him in here so they could meet. Not to be continued over the whole story.**

**4 Artificer means that while the person is a mage, he/she also makes magic items using special ingredients and components. Sometimes they collect it themselves or pay others to do so for them. Some of these items tend to be much better than what you could find in a store.**

**5 Hence why I forbid the usage of mage/sorcerer for the OC creation.**

**6 Get the hint?**

**7 Loophole: You can look for facts on him at least. Should give you some help**


	20. Adventures of the girls Pt 2

**A/N: ****This is part 2. There is no shame in admitting that you don't know the answer to the riddle, its fine to make a random stab as well. First and foremost, I would like to say: I do not own the Githyanki race. They are the property of the Sword Coast. I write this story for fun and everything about the Githyanki I use is mostly fictional. The only things I do have in similarity to the officials are the silver swords. That is all.**

_

* * *

I can__'t believe I'm actually doing this…_ Asuna scolded herself as she was being prepared by a trio of girls about a year younger than herself for the fight against Rose, named for obvious reasons. The girls weren't going easy on her. First thing they did was remove her normal clothing, down to her panties only and then they put tapes around her breasts so that they wouldn't bounce around a lot. Then they put a protective vest on her, which was open, which did unfortunately (for her) leave some neat eye candy for the men out there watching the arena fights. She was also forced to wear shorts, showing off her neat legs. At least she was given pads there for protection, and on her elbows. "Do I really need all this?" She asked the girls who dressed her.

"As a Muay Boran fighter, this is necessarily." One, a Hellas girl answered her.

"Muay Thai!" Asuna snapped at her. "I'm Muay Thai! Thai, not Boran."

"Same thing." The same girl retorted with a smile. Her two friends, a fox girl and something like a half dragon were applying strings to her hands, covering the hands and wrists in them, making small knots at her knuckles.

"What's this?" Asuna asked them, holding up her hands to look at the strings.

"Hemp. Instead of gloves, you're assigned hemp to use for protection and damage." The same Hellas answered her.

"I thought I was going to have gloves, so I don't hurt my opponents."

"What for?" the fox girl answered her. "We got healers here, so it's okay for you to bash in his head."

"Break his bones." The half dragon said

"Crush him against a wall." Hellas continued.

"Even accidentally spilling out his organs over the floor." The fox girl said. "We can fix that too, so you can do anything except killing him."

"You guys get paid for this sort of thing, aren't you?" Asuna asked them, to which they looked at a random direction with a smirk on their faces, not answering the question. "Well?" She asked after fifteen seconds of silence.

"We get bonus for it, nothing personal." The Hellas said.

_**Museum of Life**_

_Crap, we're found out! _Yuuna thought whilst the woman behind her had her hand on the helmet she had picked out from its own display container. She was shaking about as fast as a drill going on, but she stopped when the helmet was removed from her head with ease.

"These are not toys." The woman went past her so she could put the helmet back. And boy, was she gorgeous. Golden blonde hair flowed freely in the air, with a powerful scent of something absolutely divine filled the girls' noses. A regal dress did she wear, that showed the most beautiful legs any of them had seen. Ayaka's own paled in comparison, along with the hourglass figure this woman had. But there was more to her. She had this aura of… commandment about her, which somehow made them listen to her, apart from her stunning beauty. When the woman turned back to Yuuna, the basketball player noticed that like Asuna, she was heterochromatic. "Mind giving me those back as well?" She asked her.

"Eh?" Yuuna was snapped out of her trance and realized that she was talking about the spear and the shield. "Sorry." She handed them over to the lady. "I got them from the wardrobe over there."

"Honestly, some people don't know that some of these items are dangerous." The lady said, whilst the spear, being silver coloured, went into a sword. Yuuna was mentally shocked; she had touched one of those swords that could change itself. Aristodemus-san had one too?! Nevertheless, the lady went to open the wardrobe and put the sword back first in a leaning left position, then the big Aspis shield on the sword. "And not to mention that you moved the logo of the SH…"

"EEEEHH!?" Yuuna shouted in shock. "That's the Spartan Hounds' Logo!?"

"Yes. Well, it's the original one, the first one that was made in the Hounds' initial stages." The lady responded, and Yuuna hung her head in shame that she had violated the important symbol for the bounty hunters. "Now, would you mind telling me who you are and why you are here?" She turned her attention to the girls, who got a bit frightened at her direct words and the look in her eyes.

Ako stepped back, only to collide with something hanging on the wall. When she turned to look at it, it was nothing more than an old patchwork cloak, sewn together from very old linen. The crimson red colour was the main theme, but it had overlaps of grey, blue, green and brown patches, covering most of the red. It was also old, bordering on ancient, being ragged and torn in several places, where it had been sewn together as well. Whereas the other items in here were neatly clean and new looking, how come this was so… old and ragged?

"Ah, sorry." Ayaka answered for the group, stepping up to the lady in the dress. "I'm the leader for this group and Yuuna-san here," She referred to the mentioned girl who went stiff. "…decided to go have fun on her own along with her friend, Makie-san." At the mention of her name, the pink haired girl went stiff as well.

"That's fine, as long as you haven't touched anything else in here." The lady's notion made the swimmer go stiff this time, making the elder lady turn her sight to her. Akira's eyes went to the gold tablet, which was complete. "Well, apart from the tablet at least."

"We ought to be going now, everyone." Ayaka said for the group as they went for the door. The lady escorted them all the way to the exit, with no interjection of anything, except that there were people wandering around in the museum, well familiar with the interior. Once they had exited the museum, Ayaka holding her bundle of silk, Madoka couldn't help but point something out whilst they were walking down the streets, heading around the corner.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a dragon in the great hall?" She asked, making the group stop in their tracks, and look back at the way they came from. Eventually, they came to a collective 'Nah' and kept walking.

Over at the museum, the lady watched them go back into the city, having something of someone looking into the distance on her face. She seemed very distracted by something, before a very large man in armor called to her. "Hey, Arika. You don't want people to see you."

"Sorry." The lady responded back at him, and went back inside. "I was just seeing some girls off from here."

_**Hold on. Wasn't that really- **__**Back to Konoka! Argh!**_

The healer followed the arch-mage as he went down several stairs to enter a vast tunnel, built as if they were underground. There were no paintings on the walls, only statues of several certainly great Githyanki masters of the house in which Ashracai was head of now. Several doors also littered the tunnel, each passed by the two. Ashracai had been quiet the whole time whilst they moved down the stairs and partially through the tunnel.

"I'll fill you in on what happened here on Tu'narath for you." He finally spoke up as he opened a door to the left, and went through, Konoka following him like a loyal dog. "Your friend Nodoka had a great start here at first here, being recognized as someone not to be trifled with."

"Nodoka?" Konoka asked, imaging her book worm friend as someone respected by aliens. "How come?"

"I told you earlier, you're the first humans we've encountered who has magic. And we have a steady record that humans are some of the fiercest warriors we've ever met." Ashracai explained. "We were also dumb enough to give her several books of magic from Earth and she studied them daily." The two went past a great hall, this one being decorated with paintings, statues and beautiful carpets.

"So what happened in her stay here?" Konoka asked him as they went up some more stairs.

"She was having a nightmare one night." Ashracai answered, making the healer think back on those nightmares that Nodoka had back on Earth. "She decided to take the advantage of a party the night before, to escape." This caught Konoka's attention greatly. "She and several others banded together to make it happen. Night afterwards, the group managed to make their way to the space port, thanks to our conventional mini dimension jump teleportation devices."

"So she managed to escape from here?" Konoka asked him.

"She did not. They were expected by someone." Ashracai brought up a mental image to her, showing a stern Githyanki woman. "General Cireka, not being open minded to aliens like the rest of us, she halted their progress temporarily. Whilst most got away while Cireka was distracted in a fight, Nodoka and another young girl, were not among them."

That information made her heart sink, and the two of them stopped to allow several of the Arch-mage's children to pass through, escorted by a charcoal black skinned man, with a collar around his neck, indicating him as a slave. Once he was certain they were alone, Ashracai continued to walk on, Konoka following him. "Although the main report was that Nodoka and her companion were in isolation in the compound they were originally held, Cireka had actually brought them to her own palace, and had them made unconditional slaves." He stopped to see if Konoka was mentally okay. "I can stop if you wish to not hear…"

"It's okay." Konoka held up a hand. "You can continue."

"The two of them were tortured, abused and malnourished whilst in Cireka's palace." Ashracai's words made her go stiff in fear. "And no, we've checked to make sure both are still virgins." That made Konoka let go of a breath she didn't know she had. "The other slaves felt pity for them, and kept the two safe whenever possible. Eventually, whilst I was visiting her palace, a slave passed on knowledge to me about them. You can figure out the rest."

"Now," He continued. "Cireka is in jail for violation of right for slaves and the two of them are here in my own palace." He went to a grand door made out of mahogany wood, decorated with quadropedal dragons and fire breathing made out of magma stuck to the door, and opened it.

Inside, lay Nodoka on a large bed with Imperial Purple silk sheets and the room was filled with petals of an unknown flower, but Konoka could see in the lighting, that it was a very beautiful flower. The purple haired girl was asleep, seeming almost feverish to the healer. If she was there, she could surely blow it away, but right now, she could only watch her friend from the sides and do nothing. As a healer, this was the worst punishment; seeing someone very sick and in need of medical attention, and yet: not able to give it.

"Both her and the other, named Hinagiku live here, like daughters to me." Ashracai said whilst Konoka went up to see the asleep girl. "I for one, wouldn't prefer it that way myself. I'd rather send both of them home."

"Then why don't you?" Konoka asked, turning back to him, standing by the bedside. "You're second in command of the Githyanki Empire. How come you can't?"

"Because the one above me ordered me directly to keep them here." Ashracai said, and for a few minutes, his robe turned dark green. Konoka was doing calculations in her head right now. If Ashracai is second in command of the Imperium, then that would mean… "Yes. It was the Emperor Himself who ordered me. Both girls are under His protection and I've been assigned as their guardian." He told him as if he had read her mind.

Konoka felt very confused about this all.

_**Marketplace**_

Things were not looking good for a certain member of the journalist club. First Kazumi was traversing the market, looking for goody stuff to buy for the rest of the class (including things to use to mentally torture Negi), next thing she knew she was being chased by a big wyvern. Well, she was not the only one. There were others being chased by the rampant creature.

But the wyvern was hungry. It was skinny from the looks of things. The flying beast scanned its overview looking for something. It was ravenous. Naturally it would go for something that smelled good, was probably already dead and something that the tourists would eat when they're out in the wild. But this time, feral instincts had taken over, and it was looking for genuine prey. And what could be better than something that just fell down on the ground?

It was not Kazumi's day at all.

Fortunately for her, bolts of metal came from somewhere, narrowly missing the wyvern's head. As both looked in the direction where they come from, a man in late teens was running towards them with a crossbow in hand. "Hey, leave that girl alone!"

Taking it as a challenge, the wyvern focused its attention on the intruding male, allowing the paparazzi to get away to a safe area. As for the teen that came to her rescue, he almost immediately began what most cowards would call, 'Strategic retreat'. Although having something bigger than a horse coming straight your way with sharp teeth, doesn't really give you a choice. _Why didn't I call for back-up!?_

He did manage to find a tactical location, with two big pillars standing next to each other. That would give him an advantage. Good thing that they were so narrow. Well, not narrow for something like a dog or wolf to get stuck, but certainly one could not have a wagon go through it, never mind something as big as a wyvern. He first tried to run in between them and stopped just outside, only to find that the wyvern flew around the pillars instead.

_Crap! _He ducked down to avoid being hit by the Sting-Tail. When he looked up again, the wyvern was going for altitude before going for a dive against him. Vito decided swiftly to place himself between the pillars, hoping that the beast would get stuck.

And he was lucky. Just some 30 feet before it would try to bite him, he jumped back, remembering some comic he once read. The Sting-tail wyvern did get stuck between the pillars (must be rather sturdy, then) and tried in vain to get loose.

Vito decided to get it over with. He had been assigned to kill it in the first place. He drew a special short sword, assigned to every member of the Monster Hunters, weighing some ten pounds, it was quite heavy to use. But just as he was about to, he got stopped by someone.

"What are you doing?" Kazumi asked him as he stood down.

"My job." Vito answered back at her. "I know it's not pretty, it's just a defenceless animal right now. But it did try to eat you a while ago." He pointed out for her to remember. "And I've been on this assignment for over a week now."

"He did save your life, Asakura-san." Sayo, the little doll said from her wrist handing freely.

"Like the little doll said, miss." With that, Vito the Monster Hunter plunged the short sword from beneath the head of the wyvern, once he had gotten a steady hold of it. Some time later, with the help of some back up from the marketplace, some two tigermen pulling the corpse out, now missing the edge of its tail for which it was named. "Pleased to meet you, by the way, miss." He nodded in her direction and went his own way, holding the tail edge, unknowingly walking into getting a scolding from his superior.

The paparazzi, on the other hand, stood in her place, unknowingly getting a blush thanks to his courtesy in spite that he killed something living. _No, no, no. It's just adrenaline getting to me. I won't get much sleep tonight, I guess._

_**Time for Asuna eye candy**__** - BAM! – Aj…**_

"Hey, Negi!" Rakan's new voice called to the young magus, making the group of visitors along with the spectators turn their attention to the direction where it came from. Rakan was dressed in his normal clothing, along with a great coat on it. Aristodemus was walking besides him along with Theo (who had left for seeing the swordsman as well), Hakase and Chachamaru. Several spectators saluted the Strategou as he approached, whilst he merely waved at them, signalling that they were to be at ease, and then they waved hello to the elder woman at the back. "What do you guys think?" Rakan asked, as his new skin had been applied as well. Even though it wasn't to cover him fully, it was neat looking (he thought). His left eye hadn't been covered in the artificial skin, thus revealing his new body underneath. The same went for his right arm and parts of his torso. His legs didn't show anything, as he was wearing pants.

"Uh…" Negi started, taking in the new look of the great swordsman. "…It's nice, I guess."

"Neat." Eva said inspecting the new form. The vampire silhouette was circling the big one before giving Rakan thumbs up at him.

"Hey, where's Asuna?" Aristodemus asked, looking around for the heterochromatic girl with a hand on his eyebrows. "Didn't she come with you guys?"

"She's going to fight in the arena against Rose-san." Negi said, and the Strategou went to the edge to see.

"Who, Rose?" The possibly immortal one said as he saw the French fighter in the arena, seeing the combatant bow to him whilst holding out his swords in a courtesive way. "Oh, she should have no problem with him. He may be tough to deal with, but he's just at B level."

"B?" Kotarou said surprised at that. "I thought he was something like AA or something."

"Only our Hippeis are A at minimum level, and AA is not very common up there." Aristodemus said, practically squashing the hanyou's dream of beating one of those guys in combat, with the odds against him. "You wanted to have a fight, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah." Kotarou responded. "Ever since the incident, I'd like to smash something in. Call it frustration if you like, but I don't like the situation we're in right now."

"That's fine." The Strategou said at him. "Been there, done that. If you feel like it, we could have a fight."

"Really!?"

Eventually, the trio of girls who had dressed Asuna managed to get her out to the arena. She felt embarrassed like… like a kindergarten student who just called her teacher 'Daddy' in front of the class. She was practically glowing red. It was due to her state of clothing, leaving several males up there whistling a little. Though they did little to boost her confidence, as much as embarrass her. Rose did seem to bother that she was a girl as well, but above all, in the ring, she was an enemy. He took a fighting stance, pointing his swords at her. Asuna stiffened up at first, then got her act together.

Rose went for the first strike, trying to get a punch straight at her chest, but he didn't use his sword to make it a lethal blow. Asuna was fast enough to block the punch with her own, the hemp protecting her knuckles. Then she took the initiative in getting a knee into him, taking hold of his shoulders whilst doing the attack. A powerful move, but predictable, had one fought against Muay Thai before. The French combatant flexed his abdomen muscles and as the kick sent him away, he managed to come back down with little injury to him.

"Then again, we focus on the body rather than powers here in Arcadia." Aristodemus commented from the railings, scratching his chin with one finger.

Rose charged against Asuna, this time going into a spin with his body, going eventually into a jump. This move confused the redhead, but at least she reacted quick enough to dodge away from his attack. Unfortunately, her wrappings around her *ahem* was cut, and some of the males went cheering at the sight. "Argh!" Asuna went to cover herself. "Why doesn't this thing come with a zipper!?"

Rose said nothing, but went for a kick to her head on the temple. Asuna noticed, but her hands wouldn't react in time. _Your shoulder works as an extra shield, behind your arms._ A memory flashed in her mind, and she brought up her left shoulder to block the attack. Using that momentum, she took hold of his foot and lifted him upwards into the air. The flower tattooed fighter went flying high into the air, way above the railings and was going to land not so gently on the floor.

"Uh oh." Aristodemus said, starting to rush over to where he estimated where Rose was going to land. "I got him. I got him." He went a bit far from the others, most of which started to cheer him on. "I got him. I got him. I got hi- oh." He said just before the tattooed one crashed down on him, leaving both men on the ground, one half awake from his flight, the other slightly crushed and out of breath thanks to something heavy landing straight on him. Everybody was stunned quiet at the sight. "…I got him."

"Oh, great." Kotarou complained. "Now who is going to have a fight against me?"

_**Konoka**_

Some time later after the two had left Nodoka in her private quarters; Konoka had learned some more intriguing things about the Githyanki. Namely one thing that both human and Yanki could relate to: Religion.

For someone like Konoka, religion was sacred, and in accordance to her artefact, the several gods in Shinto would help her. The Githyanki, like some humans, were highly devout to a pantheon of gods, mainly two of it: Gith and Tiamat. Although there were gods like, Shalasala (goddess of healing), Hannahanna (also called Grandmother of earth) and Tarong (God of Magic) which was Ashracai's own patron God, Gith and Tiamat were the first two gods. Gith was their creator, some would say the first true Githyanki, who led them out of darkness and slavery from some unknown species, whose name Konoka was unable to say. Tiamat, was above Gith, being mainly so because Gith swore allegiance to her, and in return, Tiamat's own worshippers would come to the Githyanki's side. That pact was long gone, because after an explanation by the arch-mage, the Imperium had cut itself off from the first faction established by Gith. Why they did so, was still a mystery.

Right now, they were observing the other human girl, Hinagiku, practice her skills with her wooden sword. She seemed to recover faster.

"I've noticed something." Konoka spoke up after a moment of silence.

"What?"

"Why is there no sun here?" That question touched his interest. "I saw no sunlight here. No stars, nothing. Why is that?"

"We live underground." Ashracai said in response. "Most of us Githyanki have distaste for the sun, and therefore we are underground. There are, however some who live on the surface."

"There are?"

"Up there, Githyanki face the same problem as other worlds we've encountered: Death around the corner any day." That answer was a bit shocking, but he had something of a sad look on his face. "This may seem odd to you, but there are wars up there mainly between several surface kingdoms, each containing four races, which doesn't live easily together."

"Why is there something like that on the capital world?"

"Because that is how we get our soldiers. The Emperor has decreed it. As long as they acknowledge Him, they can do whatever they want up there. The four races for your curiosity, including Githyanki, are Humans, Hobgoblins and the Rakshasa." (1)

As much as Konoka wanted to know more, she felt that her time was beginning to run out. "It must have been hours since I used the Skull. I oughta get back."

"Seems so." Ashracai responded at her. "But could you do me a favour?"

"What?"

"Don't tell Nodoka's master about her condition. I don't want him go frantic about something he can't rush off to fix." He pleaded her.

"Okay. I will." Konoka says, before going in to whisper in the Yanki's ear. "For your information, that is a spell from our world. It'll blow away whatever sickness Nodoka has." Konoka closed her eyes, only to have them snapped open again. "One last thing."

"Homework?" Ashracai asked with a small smirk. The eyes that she gave him told him everything. She was even holding her hands together in a praying motion. "Right, what do you need help with?"

_**Library**_

Setsuna was watching over her Magistra like a bear mother watching her cub. The brunette was sleeping peacefully in her lap, but like the elder leader had said, she did appear dead to others who looked at them. The only sign that showed that she wasn't; was the Skull of the Maya that glowed with an eerily white light, focusing in its eyes. The crystal skull seemed almost irresistible to keep your eyes away, mainly due to its appearance, but like with this presence that smelled of something foul as well. Setsuna knew the stench far to well, thanks to her childhood and her adventures with everyone in the class.

Blood had been spilled in the Skull's presence. Whether in sacrifice or warfare, the stench of blood was upon it. Many have undoubtedly fought over it in the past and surely gained it, only to have been killed themselves not long afterwards. As like with many artefacts and relics of the world, this was the curse of such items of great power. But seeming that it was in the safety of Arcadia, which some claim to be the most peaceful area for centuries, the curse seem to have been lifted, though temporarily.

It has indeed been hours since Konoka has first used the Skull, and night was coming to them. Visitors began to leave the library, putting soft pats on her shoulder as they went by her while she sat on the couch she had found. But she did know that she was not alone in the library. "Come on out, Fate. I know you're there."

"Not Fate." A clear feminine voice came, and a stunning black haired beauty came into view, wearing a magi cloak. Grey hair approached her. She went over to the couch and took a seat next to the swordswoman. "Thought me for someone else?"

"Sorry." Setsuna apologized to her, and started petting Konoka's head unconsciously. "Who are you?"

"Precia is my name. Precia Testarossa." The elder woman responded at her. Precia noticed how well cared Konoka was in Setsuna's lap. "Is she special?"

Setsuna took up on the notice and looked down on her master. "Yes." She did misunderstand the meaning of the question. "Konoka-ojousama is a special person in my group. A gifted healer, nice to everyone she meets and she is also a good chef when we're out on our journeys."

"That sounds nice and all," Precia started. "But I was wondering, is she special to _you_?"

This got Setsuna blinking, several times. Then she retranslated the question in her head, and suddenly went blushing and stammering. "Uh, uh, I don't follow." The look she got from Precia got her over. "Well, in a way, she is special to me."

"How so?"

"She was my first true friend. When we were small, we played together whenever either of us had free time. I would also defend her from stray dogs. Those are some of the greatest times of my life." Setsuna told her.

"No arguments?"

"Well, there was this one time when she fell into a river. I tried to get her out, but in the end we ended being saved by adults." Setsuna had a sad look on her face, whilst continuing the petting. "I thought that I let her down back then. I stopped seeing her and focused more on my training. We've only stayed in touch together again since the last school trip."

"I see." Precia said. "So she's a very dear childhood friend."

"Yes. And sometimes… Can I be honest with you?" She asked the elder, whom nodded at her. "There are times when I think, that… Konoka-ojou-" She stopped there for a brief second. "…Kono-chan, and I… should be closer than what we are now. I for once, wish also sometimes, that time could be rewind so we could start over again after that accident by the river."

"Sometimes, I wish I could do the same." Precia's sad and gentle tone took Setsuna by surprise. "I'm not really from around here." Precia confessed to her. "I'm not from either Mundus Magicus, or Mundus Vetus, not that I've seen it. I was a scientist back home where I lived. I had a beautiful daughter, Alicia, we lived out by the lake back home. I was working on a special project."

"So how come you're here?" Setsuna asked her.

"Alicia died." Precia's sadness touched the swordswoman. "And things blurred for me… I-I-I snapped. I went mad. I redirected my project, trying to get her back. I didn't get far in the beginning. So I… cloned Alicia. An identical copy of her. I named her Fate, after the project I was working on."

"Okay…" She was beginning to picture another Fate. But given that she knew it was a girl, it was easier to make the difference.

"And I just…" Precia stopped for a moment, looking at Setsuna for some sort of approval. When given, she continued. "…abused her. I didn't see her as a daughter back then, even though she looked like Alicia. I even whipped her." Was that a tear coming down? "I was using her to get to something I wanted to bring Alicia back. Even then, I wouldn't reward her. I just made it worse.

"Eventually it came crashing down on me. Fate turned against me, I was brought down by authorities, and then…"

"It's okay."

"My base went down around me. I had Alicia put in a tank in order to preserve her, and both of us… fell down a dimensional rift."

Setsuna couldn't really imagine what Precia went through whilst in that rift. This was a woman clearly marked by misfortune more than her. At least Setsuna was lucky enough to have friends around her now. "And then you ended up here." She concluded from that back-story.

"Yes." Precia answered. "I was found on the beach outside town together with Alicia. They took me in, gave me medical treatment. But I was still mentally disturbed. I almost killed anybody who would get near me." The strong memories resided still inside her. "When I found Alicia, after they had put her in a different tank, I felt calm around her. But I snarled at anyone who came near me. Aristodemus-san was informed of it all and went to see me personally."

"And he calmed you down?"

"He did. His words still ring in my head today." Precia looked into the roof and began to recite the exact words which the Strategou had told her. _"'Staying angry all the time is probably not what she would want you to be. If you really want to have her back, then you need to calm down and relax first. When you realize what mistakes you have made in the past on something, the better you can do when you try again.' _That's what he told me."

"And then?"

"I began to recall what I did." Precia answered. "I confessed everything in a storm of sadness and recognition. They sent me to jail for what I did to Fate, and I stayed there for about six years." Precia Paused to wipe off the tear path from her face. "Four years ago, I was let out for good behaviour. I had taken anger management therapy sessions whilst in jail. I came back here, and Aristodemus-san was kind enough to give me a job."

"And Alicia?" Setsuna inquired. "What happened to her?"

Before Precia could answer that, Konoka woke up, shocking Setsuna and the elder one, and sat up very quickly from her position. Konoka took a look at the Skull and practically cast it aside, it bouncing off the floor. When Setsuna put a hand on her shoulder, the healer turned around and grabbed her childhood friend. "I saw Nodoka!" She screamed at her best friend, whose eyes widened at the news.

* * *

"Are you certain that you saw her?" Ayaka asked the healer, as everyone had been gathered together in the library's main entrance. Of course, the white haired one was not there. He was off somewhere else, keeping it to himself where he was.

"Yes, I'm certain." Konoka answered. "I did see Nodoka where I was."

"How come?" Yue asked her this time.

"She's not hurt, is she?" Negi asked, very concerned about his student on another world. Several other questions bombarded her, leaving the healer rather unable to answer them all in order.

Konoka took a deep breath before answering Negi's first and then Yue's. "Nodoka is alright. From what I saw, a powerful mage from the xenos is watching over her. He seems very nice at least."

"That's a relief." Yue said to her self, as Haruna put a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, did you find out the rest?" A certain silhouette asked Konoka. "Like what these aliens are?"

"Well, I got a name at least." Konoka answered Evangeline. "Githyanki. I don't know what it means, but they seem like a militaristic race with magic and psychic powers altogether."

"But hey, enough about that." Yuuna said, appearing out of the crowd. "Now that we know that Honya-chan is safe, that means we are able to celebrate!"

"Wait, have a party?"

"Yeah! We can't just be sitting about not knowing. Every bit of good news regarding right now is worth celebrating." The basketball player reasoned.

"Well, that's true." Haruna agreed with her. Upon reaction, a certain cat-girl in their group took cover behind something big. "Hey, is it fine if we go have a party here in Ithaca, Strategou-san?" Haruna couldn't express his name, so she referred to his position instead.

Aristodemus merely handed Rachel a special made key which was shaped like a triangle. "I'll let you kids have some out of the Sampo for this. Rachel, I leave you in charge of them, and you know the rules. See to them."

"Hey." Theo said, putting on a pout. "I go with them. Since I know Rachel from before, someone's gotta be the responsible guardian."

"Who are you calling irresponsible, huh?" Rachel asked the imperial princess. "I can be serious from time to time."

"That's not what our criminal records in the capital say." Theo caught her by surprise.

"Hey! Those were never confirmed. They dropped the charges!"

"Are you two done?" Precia stepped in there, making the senior women (one an imperial princess and the other, shorter than everyone else except for the twins and flat as a board) blush in embarrassment. "Go have fun, kids. There's a tavern known for taking in party times whenever there's going to be one."

"So, we can go there?"

"You can even go and wreck the place." Rachel said somewhat happy about that. "It gets wrecked all the time, and they earn way more than how much is destroyed anyhow. Just don't get plastered."

"Ohhh…" Aristodemus said suddenly, recalling such a memory. "That's a good idea. It happened to Rachel once. We had to take shifts on that."

"Why is that?"

"It took half the day to scrape it off her."

_**Leaving it there…**_

The tavern, known as the _Odyssey Pit Stop_, was a neat place. The interior was that of other taverns that they've seen in movies and such, but the theme of the place was something of Ancient Greek Mythology, with some hints of Zoroastrianism here and there. The first clue of that was of course the Faravahar hanging in the ceiling, made out of bronze, and coloured in bright colours to people look at it, making them realize that their actions was watched by some old god that few knew of. Wooden pillars in the same shape as those made of marble marked out the unique style of this place. Otherwise, it looked like your ordinary bar, with round tables and chairs. Though there were couches for one person gathered together with low tables for those who would like to have a go at a traditional Ancient Greek banquet.

The party was in full rouse, with non-alcoholic drinks going about at first for the girls there. They have learned from past experience that booze is bad, and Theo wouldn't want to feel guilty. Rachel on the other hand, was having no problems with drinking alcohol. She was well known in Arcadia for her behaviour, and not only because she was Aristodemus' former disciple. But the talk of criminal records was best left not mentioned at all.

Most of the girls were keeping to themselves in the party. Hot Food, juice, and other beverages were there so everyone there could have a good time of eating and drinking and having chats with each other.

"I could live like this." Misa said, having roast venison, along with cold sauce, clams of various sorts, and potato cliffs, finished with a glass of lingonberry drink. "I wouldn't mind working to have a meal like this once in a while. Are these people hiring?"

"Oi, oi, we got to graduate first, Misa." Madoka reminded her purple haired friend.

Elsewhere, Theo was looking over the two twins, who had come with them after all. She seemed to have a very good way with children. Although technically, they were older than her. Negi was watching from a distance, whilst being together with Asuna, Ayaka and Koyomi being on the couches, having fruit and special drinks. Konoka and Setsuna were sharing a meal together elsewhere.

"What's the matter, Negi?" Asuna asked her nephew.

"I'm just thinking. That's all." He responded back to her, as Theo joined them on an empty couch. "Hi, Theo-san."

"Hi, guys." The Imperial princess greeted them back, having wine poured for herself in a broad shallow bowl, which Negi identified as a Kylix, a common drinking vessel. "I see you got something on your mind, Negi." She noted on the magi's face. "Mind telling?"

Negi found himself the centre of attention for the four girls, all eyeing him with interest. Feeling the pressure on him, he eventually gave in to their curiosity. "I'm thinking about Nodoka-san. I know that she's fine and all, but I just can't stop thinking. I wonder how she's doing, if she's healthy and all. Heck, I'm even thinking that she dresses properly over there."

"That's natural for a boy thinking of a girl he likes." That comment from Koyomi had Negi and Ayaka spit out whatever was in their mouths. "…What?"

"Koyomi-san…" Negi pointed out for the cat-girl. "That's not very common to say while people are eating…" Actually it was, he just wanted to get off the subject.

"I for one, can't think of anyone (other than myself) being with Negi-sensei, given his status." Ayaka said, mumbling that bit about herself to herself.

"Oi, I can hear you, Iinchou." Asuna said.

"Same here." Theo added, both princesses catching the outclassed (socially) class representative by surprise. "Here in the magic world, royalty marry royalty. That's the way of the world here."

"Meaning?"

"That I'm the only one in here capable of marrying Negi." Theo's comment made them go stiff for a while.

"I'm going to go for a little walk around." Negi rose up from his couch, allowing Misora to have it. Walking around from the group he was with, he did need to think. What did he think about Nodoka in the first place? Someone to love? A very good friend? A good student? In a way, it was all three. Nodoka has been more bold in her approaches to him since the last time in the Magic World, though that time in the library was surely not her own scheme. She would rather go for something far less… adolescent. _I hope that mage who looks after her right now, also makes sure she studies as well…_ Negi permitted a small smile on that. Both he and Yue had been teaching Nodoka more intently to their level, so that she could handle herself. However he had been falsely accused of favourism by Makie once in the resort, because she wasn't progressing as well. Fortunately, Nodoka saw to that, offering to teach Makie a few things herself from what she learned. That worked out pretty well.

Negi suddenly noticed that Chizuru was talking to someone else there, who was sitting next to a grumbling buddy. Feeling inclined to know these two, Negi went over to them. "Oh hi, Chizuru-san." He caught them by surprise. "Who is this you're talking two?"

"Ah, let me introduce you two. Negi-kun, this is Andreas Stonegarden, a travelling merchant. And his friend…" She noted that he was still grumbling. "…is Joedo Harvianto Kartiko, a monster hunter."

"Why is he grumbling?" Negi inquired innocently.

"Because he lost his bonus after a little incident in the marketplace earlier." Andreas answered him, receiving a growl from his friend. "Come on, Vito. At least no one got killed."

"Easy for you to say, you don't have troubles like this."

"But then again, I don't have a steady income." Andreas retorted. "And you've had this sort of troubles before, why should it bother you now?"

Vito seemed to mutter something, which either of the three couldn't hear. Andreas moved his head in closer to listen. "I left a bad impression on a hot chick." He said again in the same volume.

"Ahh, that explains it." Andreas retreated his head away from the monster hunter. He whispered it in the others' ears, earning a "Don't tell them!" from his buddy.

"Hey, now, we made a deal, right? We tell each other of our achievements with the other gender. I tell you mine, and you tell me yours." Andreas retorted on him, before seeing one girl coming towards them. Since Vito wasn't looking, he motioned for Negi and Chizuru to stay quiet. "I'm going to assume she has an hourglass figure?"

"…Yeah." Vito answered him, not looking.

"Red hair, green eyes?" The merchant continued. "Hair style like a Pinapple?"

"Yeah." This time, he answered loudly, but still not looking.

"Got a cute little doll shaped like a girl with white hair hanging on her wrist?" Andreas commented on a certain girl as she had come closer to them.

"She's standing right behind me, isn't she?" Vito asked rather annoyed at these questions.

"Yes, she is." Kazumi answered this time, making Vito yelp in surprise and look at her. "Look, I'm just to talk with you. Care to go somewhere else?" She asked him. Vito tried to get an answer out of himself, but a nudge from his merchant buddy made him go outside together with the paparazzi.

"Good for him, I'd say. It's about time he found someone." Andreas commented, whilst taking a sip of his drink.

Negi decided to leave those two, as well as Kazumi with Vito. He went back to the others he was chatting with before. It turned out that alcohol had finally managed to penetrate the class' defences, and stormed their castle gates, not stopping at anything. As for Negi's group, things were not looking good. Theo, Asuna and Ayaka were sipping special wine reserved for special guests. Asuna had been tempted by the Imperial that Hellas girls could hold their liquor better than humans, and whilst the collected class representative was keeping it to herself, Asuna could not. But Ayaka had been called a shotacon by Theo, after finding out about her affection for the young magi, and she refused to back down from that. "Um…girls?"

"Negi." They called to him rather drunk. Misora had fallen asleep from drinking, her kylix put nicely on the table, so the magi decided to go share the one with Koyomi, who was seemingly sober. "Come on, Negi… you gotta try this (hic) wine…" Theo recommended some of her kylix.

"You're drunk." He stated looking at all of them.

"Drunk, Negi?" Asuna asked her nephew, before turning her head rapidly.

"Absolutely not, Negi-sensei." Ayaka answered him, slurring.

"Who fancies a kebab?" He asked rather loudly, to which all girls responded happily before stopping their actions, as he eyed them carefully.

"Ssssmmeg." Asuna said, drawing out on that British curse word. "He tricked us."

Negi would begin to say something, if it wasn't for a hand on his cheek, and then he felt someone nibble on his ear playfully.

"Iyyannnnn, Negi-kun…." She cooed rather happy.

Okay, Koyomi was not sober then…

"Hey, back off…" Theo said, since Asuna had somehow, without warning, gone to play with Ayaka's hair. "You can't have him… you're an enemy to him…"

"Not this time…" the cat-girl responded to her. "We're nakama in this together."

_Please let nothing crazy happen to me tonight… _Negi prayed to whatever god there was for a situation like this. There was one, but he's got another four parties before he could help the young magi. _I want to remain a virgin until I get married…_ Are you Catholic, Negi-kun?

_**Meanwhile…**_

Overseeing Ithaca from his balcony of his own palace, Aristodemus was in deep thought. The Spartan had chosen to not attend the party, along with some other people. Seeing them all so happy when they heard that Miyazaki was okay, made his own heart beat fast. It made him feel his real age. Kids today were so cheerful of themselves. Shame he couldn't have a childhood like they had. Whereas they were being happy with their parents, he had been thrown out.

And seeing Nagi's own son after ten years was not really what he had expected really. Not after the Gate incident. His own investigation into it showed that Godel was behind it, but given that the man was Governor, doesn't mean that he could just walk in and put him away. Well, he could, but that wouldn't sit too well with the rest of the Senate.

"Thinking here all by yourself?" A familiar voice came to him, and he noticed Precia walking up to him. The woman was wearing quite an interest outfit. She was wearing a unique gown, which reminded lookers of something from an ancient era. The gown was mainly a simple silk blue cloth reaching down to her feet, slightly transparent, with apparently no underwear underneath it, but given his age, it wasn't bothered. She also wore neatly made sandals, as well as a special stole in Imperial Purple. The purple was apparently a very popular theme in Arcadia. "Keeping things to yourself is not healthy."

"Sorry." He responded back at her. "I just got a feeling of nostalgia a while ago."

"Was it about Negi-kun?" Precia's question took him by surprise, making him look at her fully. "I keep my nose in today's rumours as well. Plus, he's been on the news, since he first arrived here in the Magic World."

"True that." The Spartan noted. "It's just… he really is Arika's son. He's got this… I don't know. But you can feel it, that's for sure."

"I felt too back there." Precia noted, walking up to stand beside him and look out over the city. "So you intend to help him, after all?"

"Yeah." Aristodemus answered. "He's going to need help with dealing with them."

"Are you referring to the Senate?" Precia tilted her head to one side, then tilted to the other. "Or the Githyanki?"

"Both, I suppose. He's going to have proper training before he can face off against either side." Aristodemus said, looking down at the _Odyssey Pit Stop_. "But right now, I'm starting to have doubts about this whole thing."

"What?" The sorceress looked at her new friend from this world. "Are you sure about that? Give it up, lock it up in some vault and destroy the key?"

"Well, not destroy, but…" Aristodemus started, but it faded.

"Is this really the same person who ordered medical attention for me?" Precia asked with a shocked tone, shocked over that she didn't recognize him.

"It'd go against my principles otherwise…" Aristodemus defended himself.

"The man who took my attacks head on while I was defending Alicia in mentally unstable condition?"

"Well, you had to vent your anger."

"The same who talked me back into my normal sense with the right words, making me realize what I had done?"

"Hey, I'm a philosopher too. I just recited someone I knew from before."

"Is this really the man who sent me to jail for what I did against the clone of my daughter?"

"You had violated human rights. Why wouldn't you be sent to jail?"

"And the same person who gave me a job as head of the R&D department here in Arcadia?" Precia finished. Aristodemus thought on those final words. He would always give people a second chance, should they deserve it.

"Well, I've always been someone to trust people, after my exile from my hometown." He answered her, before someone else barged in on the two, running towards them exhausted.

"What is it?" Precia asked, as she recognized him to be a supervisor under her administration.

"Sorry to barge in like this…" He caught his breath, despite being in good shape (a health rule on the island). "But, I came to tell you that… ζωή προβλημένος, it's done…" This caught their attention. "It's a success all of a sudden."

"Wait, are you referring to…?" Aristodemus demanded of the supervisor, which he nodded to. "The one we've been working on for ten…?" Another nod at him. "And now it's finally…?" A third nod at him. "Where?"

"Well, we… brought it here." The supervisor said at the Strategou's question. "I figured that you might want to see first hand."

Precia started to breath oddly, whilst the Spartan just watched the supervisor. "Thank you, that'll be all, Mr. Stromgard." He told the supervisor, who left the two to think for themselves. "Heh." Aristodemus chuckled to himself. "It worked. After ten years, it came to a success."

"I don't know what to say…" Precia said herself. "Finally… Oh, come here." She eventually hugged the Strategou hard, in what could be best described as a mixture of a bear hug and Marshmallow Hell. (2) It didn't take long for either of them to begin laughing in happiness of the news.

_**Morning after…**_

Setsuna groaned, as daybreak dawned on her face. It was not her morning. She could barely recall anything from last night. _Okay, I had a go at alcohol last night… _She rose into a seat, in her room, stretching out her arms, receiving a pop somewhere. She also cracked her neck twice before starting to look around in the elegant room. It was filled to the brim with small objects, statuettes made of gold and silver. Jewellery, with unusually large gems lay in neat containers that stood against the walls. Setsuna noticed something else: She was in her silk lingerie, which a certain healer had bought for her, whenever they would go out on a special Omiai date when Konoka was going to see someone. Setsuna was brought along as security, but that didn't mean that she was going dressed in a suit. The lingerie was well suited to her means in any case.

_Let's see… _She began to recall last night's events. _Kono-chan and I was given a special bottle of wine. Why didn't they check our age first? _She and Konoka had been drinking together, with some spectators of the girls watching the two. _Oh god, I can't believe I agreed to that bet. _She had made a bet with a drunken Haruna that the hanyou would kiss Konoka. _Somebody shoot me… _She clutched her hand with her right hand to ease the headache. She felt a distinct metal chill on her forehead.

_Hold on. _She took the hand away to look at it. There was a ring on her hand, made of sterling silver. Turning it around, she noticed a wonderfully made ruby in it, glowing neatly red whether in the sunlight, or its own magical properties (you never know), she didn't know on that. _Isn't this a…? _A small groan next to her made the swordswoman go stiff. Turning to her right side, she saw a distinct form underneath the sheets. _Oh dear GOD, please don't let it be who I think it is… _Setsuna dared moving the sheets off the other one, only to reveal a sleeping Konoka. _IT IS!_

Konoka groaned at the sunlight hitting her side, opening her eyes slowly and looking at the direction of the light, to see Setsuna. "Secchan…?" She asked weakly, the hangover curse on her as well. "What happened last night?"

"I think we did something really stupid last night, Kono-chan." Setsuna answered, trying to retain some of her sternness. It didn't take long before Konoka clutched her own head with her right hand, and oh my god, there was an identical ring to the one Setsuna was wearing. The latter went fully awake instantly at the sight of the ring, jumping out of bed.

"Secchan?" Konoka asked innocently, before noticing the ring on her hand as well. "What is this…?" She looked over at Setsuna, who showed hers. "Matching rings… does that mean…?"

"I hope not."

"Last night… did… did we get married last night?" Konoka asked somewhat shocked of herself and Setsuna. Unbeknownst to them, they were not alone in that action as the rest began to wake up around in the palace.

**

* * *

A/N: YES! I'm finally done! This was longer than Part 1; I don't know why I needed one in the first place. Now this is the surprise I promised you guys. I'm leaving it open for you to suggest other pairings, so go wild, I don't care what I get. Otherwise, this will be a very dull side story. I got two other pairings in it, and unfortunately Negi is one of them, but other than that; go crazy and submit ideas. If you have more than one pairing in mind, don't hesitate. WOO--HOO! 100k words!  
**

**1 I will PM those who get their OC regarding these races if you are confused. This last section was mainly for info, but the end was planned way ahead of it.**

**2 Anyone who's been to the TV Trope site would know this one. It's quite easy to become addictive.**


	21. Wait, what?

_**A/N: **_**Thank you for giving me the other pairings, those who talked to me****. I see that no one has been willing to attempt to solve the riddle. I ain't going to do it for you. Now hopefully, this will be a short chapter in comparison.**

_**

* * *

A few hours before Konoka and Setsuna wake up…**_

The sound of birds coming to life before sunrise in this beautiful landscape woke her up slowly. She rose herself to a sitting position in the neat double bed, looking into the neat room, decorated with battle gear from possibly the Classical Ancient Greek era. Swords, spears and shields filled the walls, all being well polished and there was at least a standard with a white Lambda on a red background. _Aristodemus-san is really into the Lambda. Is it the sign of his hometown? _She wondered as she took off the smelly clothing she had and then the headache of hangover smashed down on her. Clutching her head to ease it up, she heard some groaning next to her left. She found blond hair lying next her in an all roughed up manner. She couldn't help but smile as she recalled last night's events, slowly.

_That's right… _Asuna thought as she leaned down to her bedfellow. _Iinchou and I shared this bed last night. She does look after me after all… _"Morning, Sleepy-head…" She said softly next to Ayaka's ear, making the Blonde awake, somewhat.

"Mhmm… Asuna-san?" The representative asked as she rested her head on the soft pillow. Something smelled wondrous to both of them whilst the redhead took off what clothes she had from last night. "Too, early…" The blonde complained, before receiving a gentle rub on her temple to make her go back to sleep.

"I'm going on exercise now, you go to sleep." Asuna informed her, which she heard a groan in response. _We haven't done that in years. Now to find some clothes…_ Fortunately for the redhead, there was a closet in the room between two leaf inspired blades hanging separately. Inside, she found a white shirt with neat Greek loops in edges, and blue loose fitting pants to match it. Then again, white could go with anything, according to what Misa had once told her.

It was relatively easy to find her way out of the small Palace that Aristodemus had. It was much smaller than what she has seen before. She grew up in a much larger palace before the Schismatic War, and that was highly decorated from over a time period of a thousand years, from what she can recall from her lineage. This on the other hand, served to fulfil only one's needs. Apart from the weapons and armour ornaments and the gym on the first floor, it was quite, Spartan.

Asuna went up to an old dirt track that was covered with footprints, and started jogging. Since there was no way of making newspaper delivers here in Arcadia, there probably already was one already in town doing that, she went up and down the jogging path. The path was well trod and therefore it wasn't rough to run on at all. Thousands must have run on it before.

It didn't take long for the redhead to find another group of people, human and semi humans a bit further ahead the road. There were about four of them, being from around the whole Magic World. Asuna noticed that Rose was among them, the one she beat the other day. She jogged up to them, breathing moderately as she arrived to them. "Do you mind if I tag along?" She asked them. None objected to that.

Some time later, when the sun had actually gone up, they were in town, back at the _Pit Stop_, enjoying a well earned breakfast, with cold ham in freshly baked bread and some weird fizzy drink to go with.

"Can't believe we made a real mess last night here…" Asuna said as she inspected the newly clean place. "It's almost as if we never partied here last night."

"You had a party here last night?" One, a lion man asked her, and then took a bite of his ham.

"Yeah." The redhead answered him. "We were celebrating."

"Over what?"

"Well, a friend of ours had been…" She felt a bit reluctant to tell the truth. "…plagued by some incurable disease." She lied to them, making them wince. "But yesterday, we got info that something to fix that disease has been made and that our friend was going to be okay."

"Ah…" The bartender said, surprising her from behind. "That would explain why you kids had wine. People can drink regardless of age here, but it makes the Strategou look bad to others."

"That was, an interesting policy…" Asuna said, really surprised at hearing that. Then she received a pint filled with water.

"That's going to take care of your hangover. Here, have this too." The bartender was kind enough to give her a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich too. "Could someone get the newspaper for me?"

"I got it." Rose, the French fighter got up and walked to the door and got the paper. Having a first glance, his expression was quite, lightly surprised. "Hey, Mademoiselle, you're on the front page." He called to Asuna.

"Front page?" She asked, snatching it away when Rose got close enough for her to take the newspaper. There was a picture of her there, at least. She couldn't read Latin, but at least she could read the headline: 'Vulgus Matrimonium'. Now from the Latin that the redhead did know, that meant… _Oh, GOD! _(1)

It took a while for her to find the page she wanted to find for more info on the news. Her own name was there, together with… _This can't be right…_ She thought to herself whilst reading the other names that were listed. It didn't take long for her to find the name 'Nagius Springfieldes' there too. But then, also the name next to his was _WHO!?_ "I gotta go!" Asuna rose from her seat after having half the sandwich and water down her throat.

"But you haven't had-" Someone's voice was cut short after the redhead went supersonic on the ground, rushing towards the palace where she had woken up. The boom practically woke up the neighbourhood. "Why was she off in such a hurry?" The bartender took the newspaper she had left behind and took a look at the page she read before leaving. Stunned at what it was, he shook his head. "This better just be some really good joke someone made up."

_**Back at the palace**_

"Oooh…" Kotarou woke up with a groan, clutching his head as sunlight hit him clear in the eye. "Who got me drunk with Alcohol last night?" He lay on a bed with sheets on. Under the covers next to his own head, he saw a small bump. Pulling back the covers, he saw that it was a female foot. "Oh, no." He said as he rested his head on the foot.

Natsumi woke up with something on her foot, and she took the covers from her head to get some sunlight on her. "What happened to me last night?" She stopped her actions when she saw Kotarou looking at her weakly.

"Hi." He said to her.

"Hi." She returned. This was a very awkward moment for both of them. Sure, they have slept in the same bed since they came back from Ostia back to Mahora, but like this? No. They could have done something very embarrassing and disturbing last night.

"I remember that I made a bet that I could stand on only one finger last night, and it had to be my pinky…" Kotarou said, grasping his head as it began to come back to him.

"I think I told Chizu-ne about us and she was very proud with our own progress as a…" Natsumi began, but stopped there, not really wanting to say the right word, even though she knew it.

"And then… Kaede-nee-chan told me to juggle the amphorae, didn't she?" Kotarou said, recalling that there were four large amphorae that he had been forced to juggle that night. Why on Earth did the squinty-eyed ninja (Who's a ninja?) do that to him?

"Blindfold." Natsumi recalled the event then.

"And then…" Kotarou continued on, but it was… "I can't remember anything from there…" He finished there. "But I reckon it ended with us in the same bed again, seeing how we are…"

Natsumi suddenly felt quite cold all of a sudden. "Oh my god." She said, having taken a quick look under the covers. "I'm topless." On reaction, the hanyou recoiled away from her, only to land head first on the floor. "Are you okay?"

Kotarou noticed two things whilst he was on the floor. "I'm wearing boxers." Was the first one. The second thing he noticed whilst his partner checked if she did have any panties on still, was that he had a well made ring slid on his finger. He never bothered with details about rings, but it glowed brightly yellow. "Um… Natsumi?"

"YES! I'm still wearing them!" She bursted, leaving the lycanthrope a bit confused. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, she stayed quiet.

"Do you have a ring on your finger too?" He asked her and she looked at her hands. She did have a beautiful ring, also glowing brightly yellow. When he saw it too when he rose up, he didn't seem happy about it. "As much as it's tempting, I don't want to know."

"Morning to yo-!" Chizuru popped her head in to check in on the two, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw the two of them in their *ahem* small amount of clothing. "Excuse me." She closed the door, and was there a blush on her face when she left?

"Can this day get worse for us?" Kotarou asked as Natsumi managed at least to find a white silk, loose shirt somewhat too big for her. Well, at least it wouldn't show her chest area too much.

_**Down at breakfast**_

"Morning, everyone!" A certain old master greeted at least the sports girls, Takane, Kazumi with Sayo, Chizuru and Chachamaru as they sat down at the table. There were also two guys sitting down at the table alongside Rachel. The two guys along with Yuuna, Akira and Takane were clutching their heads in headache, indicating that they had drunken alcohol last night. "Hangover cures are coming up for you, guys."

"What makes you think we got hangover?" Yuuna asked him, grunting.

"Well…" Aristodemus started whilst he was making glasses filled with raw eggs covered in pepper. "…You guys are holding your heads in pain, the bloodshot eyes, you look dehydrated, and you look like you're starving. Not to mention you are probably sensitive to…" Aristodemus started scrambling with spoons, forks and knives, making all the hangover girls and the two guys grasp their heads in agony. He ended the noise by slamming the cutlery down on the kitchen bench. "That's what gave your hangover away."

"You're evil…" One of the guys said, pointing a finger on him.

"Come to think of it…" Aristodemus said in response to that guy. "You would be; Monster Hunter Hoplitae 2nd rank, Joedo Harvianto Kartiko, Fire user, yes?"

"That's me, sir…" Vito said in response to what the Strategou said. "I don't even drink alcohol, what the hell happened to me?"

"…And me." His friend said to finish up the summary. Both guys heard Rachel chuckle somewhat nervously at them.

"My bad." She apologized to both of them. "I was very drunk last night, and when I spotted you, I felt like there wasn't enough action going with the stuff, so I… shoved each of you a bottle of that Black Dragon Skull Blower liquor down your throats."

_Crash!_ "Thanks a lot, Rachel!" Her master called to her. "That was my favorite cup you made me drop!"

"Sorry!" Rachel yelled back, making the hung over people clutch their heads. Around that time, Haruna, the cheerleaders and Chamo came in; the ermine and the purple haired girl along with Madoka were wearing icepacks. "So anyhow, it's my fault you guys got drunk last night."

"So how come you don't have a hangover?" Vito's friend asked her with a mixture of curiosity and irritation.

"I don't get them." Rachel smiled nervously at them.

"Okay." Vito said, getting a glass of hangover cure for himself. "I'm gonna get better," He drank up the raw egg with pepper. "And then I'm gonna kill you."

"I wouldn't recommend that." Aristodemus called to him, whilst frying something in the kitchen. "She could beat a dragon with her bare hands if she wanted to."

At the table where everybody sat, having juice whilst waiting for the breakfast meal, Haruna started sniffing for something. And it wasn't food. "I smell it." She said, catching everybody's attention. "It's faint, but it's here somewhere."

"What is?" Vito's friend asked her.

"Haruna got this 'Nose for Love' and she can smell out someone's affections for something." Yuuna said, somewhat straightened out, making the two guys rather nervous at that fact.

"It ain't love this time." The Manga fan said, this time getting real attention. "I can tell between different hormones and this kind is of the ultimate level of intercourse."

"Wait, you mean…" Kazumi asked her, but somewhat refraining from using the right words. "…the hormones that one gives away after having… a very intimate intercourse with someone else?"

"What kind of hormones are those?" Ako asked nervously at the notion, seeing where this was going.

"Sex." Rachel answered bluntly. "Haruna-chan seems to smell those hormones that one gives off after having had sex." That made everybody pale. Who had sex? Wait, who had sex with whom last night? And how come?

"Do you recall something like that, Andreas?" Vito asked his friend sitting next to him.

"I think I…" Andreas started, scratching his chin, but then smacked his hand on his forehead. "Oh no…"

"What?"

"Chizuru-san and I, last night…" Every girl's eyes went to the big breasted one among them, who seemed not budged by their stares.

"He didn't get lucky last night." She stated plainly. Just to be on the safe side, Haruna took a long sniff of Andreas, who seemed nervous at someone sniffing at him. What Chizuru said was true.

"And what about you, Vito-kun?" Rachel asked the monster hunter, now being the centre of attention this time. His eyes went to Kazumi, who shook her head at them.

"He didn't get lucky either." Kazumi said at them answering the small woman's question. "I have a witness." The reporter held up Sayo to show. "But, I do must confess." Kazumi rose up from her position, and walked over to Vito. "He did get enough points last night to get this." She put a piece of paper in his pocket and went back to her seat.

"Damn." Haruna told herself, before picking up the trail of the smell again. "Hold on, the smell feels somewhat stronger over here." She went away from the table, and followed the smell, which went to the kitchen. Chamo was on her shoulder. The smell got stronger from there. "Wait a minute." She stopped herself at the kitchen area, where a certain host was preparing pancakes for them in a frying pan.

"That's where the smell comes from?" Takane asked the manga-ka, who looked at Aristodemus. "You certain?"

"Dead certain." Haruna said, getting the Strategou's attention from the pan and to look at them from the open area between the kitchen and the tables.

"What?"

"Did…did… you… did you…" Both guys asked the shorter guy, trying desperately to find the right words to get him to answer.

"Did you make a _homerun_?" Rachel asked her master shocked, relieving the two guys of asking him. Aristodemus was looking in several directions, blinking several times. He didn't really know what she had meant by that, as he was unfamiliar with the term.

"What do you mean, 'Homerun', Rachel?" He asked her.

"You know…" Vito asked him this time, motioning with his hands trying to formulate the words through gestures. It failed, horribly.

"You're going to have to be straightforward with me about this. I haven't been around for a while." Aristodemus instructed them.

"I think what they're trying to formulate is," Rachel started, before drawing a deep breath. "Did you get laid last night?" Now that got everybody's attention. Every girl (including the robot) was stunned. Someone as old as him managed to get a score.

"Hehe…" Chamo chuckled at the old man's success. "I must say that I am surprised myself at this. Never thought you still had it in you." If that notion caught the Spartan off guard, he didn't show it. He just nodded that Chamo could continue. "Let me put it like this: You're old. Old people tend to never get it good with the ladies, at least in your age. So I reckon that you got some really good sleeves from your prime time, when practically every girl had the hots for you, I bet. Care to share some with Aniki when he wakes up?"

Aristodemus didn't say anything at first. He just put down whatever he was holding and in the blink of an eye…

_**There was a hole in the window as something small and furry went through it at 40/mph…**_

Everyone looked shocked at Aristodemus who had apparently thrown Chamo out an unopened window from his position, with neither care nor worry for the ermine's safety and a smile on his face.

"What?" He asked as they looked at him. "I didn't want to be rude."

_**Another who's waking up**_

Theo was awake for a while. The room she was in was filled with elaborate Persian decorations, with a large collection of food in the centre of the room, along with a bowl of gold coins. Not that she would say no to the coins, she felt more peckish than greedy. Plus she's rich enough. She went to have some of the bread loaf that was in the pile by the bedside (the end where the feet normally go).

_This is the last time I take responsibility __for a party. _She thinks to herself before having a go at some of the dates there as well. It didn't take long before she noticed a new ring on her hand. This one was made of solid gold, with neat Celtic decorations and a powerful diamond on a stand, giving off a glow that she hadn't recognized before in other rings. Apparently, Aristodemus had more than what he had let in on magical items in her past visits here.

Despite having been here before when she was a child, both before and after the war, to study in order to become monarch someday, should the real heir apparent pass away, Theo had never really been allowed to be to the palace herself because the teachers always said that was off limits to students. And just where does he keep all these things? This ring alone simply pulses away magic like crazy. _And how come I got hold of it?_

It was around that time, when memories started flooding her brain, about last night. Somehow, the group of girls that included her last night, managed to get Negi into his teenage form and then she managed to get some of that wine she had down him. And then…

Her eyes went to the bed as she was in a glowing blush. There was another form in the bed. She remembered almost clearly of what happened to her. It's all blurry towards the end but she did remember a handsome young man joining her. And as far as she could say, the only one who had both auburn eyes and red hair, along with a quite muscular body, and an angel face with baby smooth skin was someone she once considered going out with, had he not been occupied with other girls.

Negi woke up with a groan as well, not sounding completely like he was at home. The young magi didn't really recall going to bed, so he rose up from it, only to be met with a blushing gaze from the Third Imperial Princess.

"Um…" Both said at the same time at each other, averting their gazes from each other. Negi scratched his chin whilst Theo scratched the back of her head, well steering clear of her horns. "Well…" they tried again at making a chat.

"You go first." Negi eventually said, allowing the princess to speak first between the two.

"I can't really remember everything that happened last night…" Theo started, which was technically true, but she couldn't really remember when they got in the bed. Nor did she want to. "I do recall that I and the other girls in the group had you turn into an adult."

"And Koyomi-san held me down, while you were handing that wine you had last night, down my throat, and then Asuna and Iinchou-san cheered you on…"

"Then Iinchou realized what she was doing and tried to stop me." Theo continued as the party started to come back to both of them in quite vivid pictures.

"And from there, she planned to use us both being drunk and try to kiss me…" Negi continued on that particular event. "…only, Koyomi-san got one in before her. Then she went on by saying that she liked a special incident before we came to Mundus Magicus."

"What happened?" Theo asked him with a curious look.

"I don't want to answer that one." Negi said before clutching his head with his left hand.

"Wait a minute." Theo said, taking hold of his hand when she got up from her seating position and walked over to him. "You got two rings on your hand."

The young magus took a double look at his hand. There was an identical ring to what Theo was wearing. "Wait, what?"

_**That was stunning…**_

"Come on, tell us!" Yuuna asked the Strategou with a devil's grin. "Who was the lucky girl?"

"I wouldn't really call her a girl, Yuuna-san." Aristodemus answered. "Now would you be so kind to get off me, I can see them."

"I don't care."

"You ain't getting away from us, Boss." Vito said, having joined the basket ball player. "We want to know who it is."

"What gives you the right to question me like this, Vito-kun?" the Spartan hissed at his employee. "I got my own rights to stay-"

The door to a hallway opened to reveal Precia, wearing a morning robe in light blue colour. It matched with her black and grey approaching hair. "What are we discussing here?" She asked with a smile.

Everyone who had ganged up on the Spartan stopped in their tracks. Precia-san (whom Rachel, Andreas and Vito recognized) who was head of the R&D department on Arcadia, had slept with Aristodemus? How come… and they were both so old.

Either way, regardless of the possible reasons as to why, and _how_, Everybody's eyes went to the Spartan. Yuuna dropped from her awkward position on him, placing her feet on the floor. Both guys were looking at him in pure curiosity and shock. For the first time in about thirty years, Aristodemus felt a bit uneasy this time. "We had a breakthrough, alright? We got a bit too happy."

Vito took the opportunity to go to the nearest wall, and bash his head against it. There would surely be bloodstains on it afterward at the rate he was bashing. Fortunately for his brain cells, a blip came to them, bringing the Strategou's attention to it. It was an e-mail, brought up on a holoscreen.

"Oh, it's from Kono-kun (2)." Aristodemus said, having a look at the message. It wasn't really what he had expected from the old master of Kanto.

It read: '_What's this about my granddaughter getting married!?_'.

"Huh?" For the first time ever, in a _very _long time, Aristodemus felt himself very confused. "Oh, there's an attachment." He pressed his finger on it, only to have a very brief stream of fire rushing past his head, engulfing his head.

"Aristodemus-san?!" Several people shouted, then the fire stopped, leaving a somewhat darkened Spartan covered in dust and ash. To be sure on the sure side, Rachel rushed to the kitchen to try and save their breakfast. Surely pancakes shouldn't be left alone on the frying pan for that long. Then the doorbell rang.

"Er, could someone go fetch Konoka? I'll get the door." Aristodemus managed to cough out of himself, then went for the palace door, still covered in ash.

"Wait, you can't go out like that!" Precia yelled at him.

"I've done it before, never bothered me before." He yelled back at his employee.

"I can't allow you to go out the door like that, really." She said loudly whilst he continued on.

"We are not married, Precia-san." He countered at her. "Black card." He said, signaling that the conversation was over. He picked it up from some old science fiction series from the Old World. It was still pretty popular, even in Arcadia.

"Yes! Pancakes are safe!" Rachel shouted, ending the pregnant silence in the room, coming out with several plates filled with said meal to eat. They looked weirdly at her. "What?"

Aristodemus came flustered in mere seconds later, along with Asuna carrying Chamo in her hands, having something of a panicked look on his hands. He looked around for someone. Upon seeing the group, he virtually yelled at them. "Where's Negi-kun and Theo-chan!?"

_**Oh boy…**_

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Asuna shouted whilst at the table, with everyone fully awake and sitting there. Even their temporary ally Fate was there, but where he had been the night before, he wouldn't tell. And it probably was for the best that they didn't want to know either. "How come that we got married in the first place!?"

Apparently, Asuna had been made together with Ayaka, Negi with Theo, Konoka with Setsuna, Kotarou with Natsumi and strangely, Madoka together with Misa. Everyone was very confused at these news. It really was a Mass Wedding. But it was real shocking somehow that they even conceived the idea. It must have been something in that wine they had. And who the hell came up with that anyone could drink regardless of age?

"I don't know." Aristodemus responded at her. "I'm as confused as you are, Asuna. But we can't really undo this one right now. Fortunately, we can contain this piece of news at least."

"How?" Chisame asked with a really twitched up smile on her face. "If the press got hold of this story last night, what are the odds the rest of the world doesn't know about two imperial princesses getting married at the same time?"

"The press here is controlled by me partially, Ms. Chisame." The Strategou answered her. "And I made the rule that any news that comes out of Ithaca always pops up two days in the rest of the world after it turns up here. And you can bet your own cute ass that I could prevent this from being leaked out, thanks to a rather ridiculous bribe to everyone here in town. The fewer who know about this, the better."

"How many do know?" Akira spoke up, being very curious at this.

"The only ones who know are; Ourselves, the town of Ithaca here on Arcadia, the dean, and Theodora's father apparently." Aristodemus answered her, making the princess spit out her own juice made out of freshly plucked apples.

"How come Papa knows!" Theo shouted at him.

"Let's just say there was someone at the door before Asuna bursted in behind him. It was a messenger from your dad, Theo." Aristodemus answered the princess. A certain vampire silhouette was trying hard not to laugh at this delicate situation. The white haired one was emotionless on the outside, whilst on the inside; he was torn between being scornful for having at least one of his Ministra drunk from last night or trying to say something about this situation.

"Okay, so only we, Ithaca, the Emperor of Hellas and the dean back at Mahora know about that we're married?" Kotarou asked him.

"Yes. Wish I knew how it happened in the first place." The Strategou's frustration was clear in his tone. Not surprisingly, there were a few who noticed that Rachel was trying to sneak away from the area. "Where are you going, Rachel?" That tone sent shivers down her spine.

"Um…" the short girl tried to get her way out of this, but knowing her master, that wasn't much of an easy challenge. "I…I…I…" She tried, but the looks she was getting didn't help her much.

"You stuffed us with alcohol last night, didn't you?" Madoka accused the leather clad one, even pointing her finger that had her wedding ring on it.

"Well, sort of, yes." Rachel answered, being meekly in front of them. Not even she could handle this big a number of angry people. Not without going into her special state. But it didn't help that her own martial arts master was in that crowd. Wait, why is he smiling?

"Congratulations, Rachel." Aristodemus said, confusing everyone. "In just one night, you have managed to rupture some of the world's most important political structure. Happy?"

Rachel did honestly try to answer confidently on this one. "Well, I didn't plan on it…"

"I didn't ask you if you planned on it, I asked if you were happy about it."

"Well, think of the great possibilities." Rachel got carried off on that. "Politically, this could work as a protection for Negi-chan from the Senate, and he could be made Emperor himself someday as well… Oh, and from what I gather, Setsuna-chan and Konoka-chan were partners already, so that turned out nice and-"

"I think it's time for another flying lesson, Rachel." Aristodemus said, appearing behind her and grabbing hold of the collar of her own armor.

"Flying!?" Rachel said in shock and as she was dragged away, she started to plead him. "Wait, Shishou! I'm not happy about this! Not at all! I was just thinking about the possibilities of right now!" The others just watched as she was dragged off into the outer hall for the dressers. "Not the Iron Balls! Not the Iron Balls!"

_**Look, it's a bird! It's a plane! Were there weights attached to her?**__** And why was she screaming?**_

"What do you mean, you can't get divorce papers?" Aristodemus said with an angry tone at the holoscreen of his contact, a well known administrator of the city, whom he have had many drinks with in the past. "It's simple really, I just want some for my friends and it has to be as discreet as possible. Is that possible?"

"_Well, we could, but it's bound to get out by passers by __getting out of Ithaca. I can't really see the point of keeping a lid on this."_

"I can take care of the visitors and passers by." Aristodemus countered. "We don't want people to get the very wrong idea here. Clear?"

"_With all respect, Strategou-dono, we can't get divorce papers that fast. You know first hand how complicated bureaucracy is on this level and-"_

"You see this gold bar?" Aristodemus held up one in front of the holoscreen. "This one is 24 karat and weighs about ten pounds. If you do a good job and handle it discreetly, I will send to you, gift wrapped. If you screw this up, then you will still get it, only with a slice of lemon wrapped around it. Got it?"

"_But, I will still get the bar, right?"_

"Yes, and you might want to do it discreetly for your own health." With that, the Spartan turned off the holoscreen. Whilst he was having a chat, the others who found themselves in this big mess, was really trying to eat their breakfast, still warmly heated. But it didn't help that their faces looked like 'Shoot me now' on all of them.

"_What are we going to during the time of this?"_ Asuna asked telepathically for the whole group. Despite not being a mage, telepathic communication outside the pactio was something most of the team had learned post Magic World incident.

_Hey, how come you can do telepathy? _Madoka wondered in her own mind. To her response, Negi tapped her forehead, along with Misa.

"_Now you're linked to our telepathic comm. network." _Negi said in both their minds, not sounding happy. Not one bit.

"_Let me get this straight. We are married to one and another, and __we don't even remember why we did it?" _Theo asked commonly out to them.

"_No." _Was the answer she received from all of them.

"Can't figure out what to do?" A certain master went over to them, standing at the table. "I got the papers on the way, but it's going to take a while until they're ready."

"That's a relief." Ayaka said dead toned.

"In the meantime, why don't you try it out?" Aristodemus asked them, gaining some curious looks at him. "You know, being married and everything. It wouldn't really hurt to give it a go."

"How come you're taking this so lightly?" Kotarou asked him.

"I'm not, I'm just trying to avoid having to deal with the politics of this."

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a try at least." Misa said, but her tone gave away her displeasure at this. Apparently, she didn't like to be married to a girl, never mind her own best friend Madoka.

"What would my parents say about this?" Negi asked to himself, though out loud. Everyone who knew the real person of how Nagi Springfield the Thousand Master was, gained a common thought bubble on what Nagi would say about this.

"Negi, you might want to rephrase that question." Asuna told her nephew.

"Yes." Negi said. "What would Mother say about this?"

"Oh, I don't know really." Aristodemus said, turning away from the table. "Why don't you just go talk to her?"

"Well, that could work, if only- couldyourepeatwhatyoujustsaid?" Negi asked the Spartan, being fully awake this time, as well as Asuna, Theo, Kotarou, Konoka and Setsuna, those who knew who Arika really was.

"I said, Why don't you just go talk to her?" Aristodemus restated the question, leaving all of them very confused. "Oh. Follow me. This might turn up your moods at least."

**

* * *

**

**A/N: Now what does Aristodemus mean by that, really?**

**1 Literally "Mass Wedding" in Latin**.

**2 Seriously, why make the dean's nickname 'Ko-kun' when it could be 'Kono-kun'?**


	22. Museum of Life

_**A/N: **_**Hey, I'm back! Sorry for taking so long, but I got a new computer and I tell you that it is **_**hell **_**trying to transfer over the files. I'm going to have to start using Office instead of Word. But before I start going further, I'm to answer one review that I got recently.**

_**To dragon: **__I thank you for your liking of the chapter. I had intended that they would be married for the long term duration of the story, but when it comes to things like that, we need to consider the problem of _Age_. And I haven't made any ideas on a lemon story for it either. Someone else will have to make that juicy shot._

**With that, onwards! Charge into the chaos and the confusing elements of my writing! (I know I'm crazy.)**

* * *

It took a while, but they reached the old building marked as the Museum of Life. It didn't help their mental support that they got congratulations and catcalls from those they passed by, as well as promises to the Royal couple they wouldn't tell a soul about what happened the night before. Negi had to play up as his teenage form, making several (if not all) of the girls go blushing at his form. Though a certain hacker didn't seem to like the idea that he would go like that, but it was the lesser of two evils.

Several of the girls in the Magic World and in Ithaca who had an eye out looking for great gladiators to get their hands on, made small sobs at the news that the great Nagi Springfield had gotten married to the third princess of the Hellas Empire, and also they couldn't do a thing without making _another _war. The guys on the other hand, they patted him on the back, congratulated him personally about scoring so big, and even went as far as asking if they had 'done anything' yet. They were promptly knocked out by the girls who were not married. The ones smart enough for not making such questions to the gladiator now made _Prince of the Hellas Empire _(though unofficially), wondered instead if they could have a good word put in with the girls that went with him.

A certain master had them go silent with just a stare. Come to think of it, no matter when they were in his presence, or how it went unnoticed by them until now when he was letting his fury at the whole scandal boil inside himself, there was this aura about him that was fearsome. In many ways it was cool, neat and gave off the impression that he has been around for a very long time and knows what he's doing, there was no doubt about that from what they've seen of him. But when he was boiling inside with the silent rage he has, he had this presence, something that made one think that this guy could fight and defeat anything that came his way. And they could see why, as his sleeves weren't covered under a shirt. His arms were covered in a massive amount of scars gained from battles, and it must have been countless of them. There were sinews of steel in some of them, meaning that he never went to a good healer for them. Either that or the wounds were too grave for the healer to get rid of completely, like with many other scars.

Arriving at the Museum and opening the door, the first thing they noticed that the big pedestal at the entrance's grand hall was empty. "Okay, who has been here before?" Aristodemus asked out loudly for them to hear. A small apology from the sport girls, cheerleaders and Ayaka later, he sighed. "No, I'm not mad at you. It's just this whole situation that is screwing up my mind."

"How?" Asuna asked him gently but bluntly.

"Once you look at certain things in a political point of view, things tend to go down-hill very fast and out of control." The Spartan answered her. "Good thing we are in a position to curb this one at least."

Depressed as he was about it, he still was on edge. The proof of that came in the shape of a very large axe with Nordic inscription on it, coming forward straight onto the Strategou's head in a spinning motion, had the Spartan not caught it whilst it was in motion. Afterwards, a large man in what seemed to be chain mail armor came down from an upper railing, screaming "Waaagh!" brandishing a similar axe to the one that Aristodemus had caught. He swung the axe at the Spartan's location, but found that he was not there. _Uh oh._ He thought to himself before becoming beheaded from behind. His head went flying to the left, right into the mass of females, whilst his body fell down.

Several screams came from the girls, most of whom were standing next to the head. "Murder! We got a dead person here! Someone call the cops!"

"DAMNIT!" The head suddenly shouted, ending the girls' hysteria, and making them all go 'Eh?' whilst having them look at the head. "I thought I'd get you this time, Aristodemus!" He said loudly at the Spartan, who had apparently cut off the living head from its body. "Every time I try something new, it's always something that you have seen before thanks to some previous assassination attempt on your life."

"If that was supposed to be an assassination attempt, I simply must congratulate the one trying to take me with brute force." Aristodemus responded, picking up the head. It was only then that the living head noticed all the hot girls that were looking at them in surprise and shock. "Oh? Sorry. Everyone, meet Thorkell, the Tall."

"Yo." Thorkell the Head greeted them with a wink. It took a while for the girls to calm down, whilst still having curious looks at the head.

"Thorkell here is not a real person. He's a wax figure with a metal frame inside." Aristodemus said, whilst carrying the head back to the body. Helping it up in a quite crude fashion, he applied the head to the body and started spinning Thorkell's head around, gaining a 'blrrrr' sound, before it came to a stop. "Oops." Unfortunately, Thorkell's head had been turned so it looked backwards. That was easily fixed.

"Oh, thanks." Thorkell rose up from his sitting position (Aristodemus is only as tall as the girls, remember?) and the watchers noticed that he was at least as tall as Rakan was. He was also about as muscular as the great swordsman, and the general appearance was the same, a headband, and a dreadful hairstyle. The only that seemed different was the way he looked. He had a chain mail fitted tightly to his chest, whilst also having a great fur coat on, covering his arms. In accordance, he had great brown leather boots on his person as well. "Oh?" He noticed Yuuna at least. "Hey, you were one of those that were here yesterday."

"Eh? Er, yes I was." Yuuna answered the big one.

"Yes, the one that snuck into Aris' personal collection." Thorkell noted, ensuring her a stare from the Spartan. "Don't worry buddy, nothing was taken. In fact she and her friends were caught red-handed."

"Whatever, I need to see Arika. Do you know where she is right now?" Aristodemus asked the great warrior.

"I think she's in the war game room, probably having another go at defeating Hannibal and Charlemagne." Thorkell answered, putting a hand on his chin.

_Wait, who? _Chisame thought mentally to herself. Noticing that the hacker was in a mental state of 'Magical Depression' again (as they had dubbed it), Mana put a hand on her shoulder.

"Right. Listen, I need to take this boy here," Aristodemus pointed at Negi in his teenaged up form, and then at Asuna and Theo. "to see Arika. Can you take the others around the museum on a tour?"

"Sure, I need something to do around here. Those Japs with their swords are not spoiling for a rumble these days." Thorkell said with a groan and sulking.

"Go on; take them through Mundus Magicus Historia Section, will you? I'm in a hurry." Aristodemus gestured for the others to follow Thorkell, whilst he also motioned for his trio of charged duties to follow him through the great museum. It had definitely been enchanted, heavily. In contrast to the already large building exterior, this place was also HUGE. It could be qualified in size on the interior as the same as Godel's own palace back in Ostia. And that used to be the Royal family's summer villa (check it).

It took actually several minutes before the quadrant found themselves outside a large door. Make that two large doors, for they were connected together. Made of powerful oak, they didn't seem easily moved from their side. Aristodemus decided to bang on the door, gaining a 'Go away, we're busy' from the inside. He banged again on the door.

"_Let my armies be the trees and the rocks…"_ The same male voice that shouted for them to go away started at his second banging, as a riddle to complete.

"…And the birds in the sky." The Spartan yelled back at him. "Come on, am the owner not allowed to enter any of his rooms in a building that he owns?" The response was that the doors were being unlocked for them, so the group could enter. The war game room was large, well, large as a gym hall. There were different maps on holoscreens, several tables with moving figures of soldiers from all over the worlds, and around the tables and on the benches, stood and sat several persons in armour from various periods. Several, Negi recognized from history as some of the greatest military minds in the Old World's timeline, regardless of period they were from.

At the far end of the room, there were three persons having a go of what seemed to be a similarity to Warhammer Fantasy, a popular game in the old world. The first two were men, one from the ancient era, and the other was from at least the Dark Ages. The one from the Ancient times was wearing a Greek Linothorax, a suit of armor made out of thick layers of linen, coupled together with scales of Bronze. He also had an eye patch, but since that he was a wax figure, that was probably how he was portrayed by how he was remembered by popular belief here in the Magic World.

The other was wearing heavy chain mail, along with a belt holding a Spatha sword. In accordance with his armor, he also wore a great red fur-lined mantle, and he held a helmet in his left hand. In his right hand, he had an elaborate spear. He wore an old crown on his head, but he was also quite young looking, no more than at least seventeen summers.

But the third one was definitively Arika, in her majestic dress and also having her hair in a bun much like the Chinese has. She was apparently leading a fairly medium sized army against both of them, and it looked like she was winning. Against both of the two men. "How goes it?" Aristodemus asked them as his group approached the tables where the trio of players were.

"I'm currently routing Canute's soldiers, whilst holding my flank against Hannibal." Arika instantly answered him.

"How can someone be this good?" Hannibal asked almost outrageous, flailing his arms about.

"I don't recall having this much trouble with one woman back when I was alive." Canute, the one in chain mail said, crossing his arms. He clearly held respect for Arika.

"Let me see." The Spartan decided to have a look at the strategies each of them were conducting. And granted that all three were masters of the art, it was quite impressive in their own build up. "Not bad, not bad at all. But in any case, Arika. I need you to come out with me for a while."

"What is it?" The Queen of Vespertatia asked of the old man.

"Come with me, and you'll see." Aristodemus gestured for them to go outside. Arika motioned for a man in lamellar armour and Mongolian styled accessories to take over for her. The group of five people went out the war game room and the doors were closed.

"Very well." Arika turned around to meet the Spartan's gaze once the doors were closed. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Arika, you do recall Theo, don't you?" Aristodemus referred to the Third Imperial Princess standing next to Negi, who suddenly went very stiff, having the incarnation of the 'Queen of Calamity' looking straight at her.

Arika went over to Theo and looked at her in the eye. "Theodora?" She asked the horned princess.

"Um, yes?" Theo returned at her.

"So it is you." Arika turned into a grin and put a hand on Theo's shoulder. "You've grown at least. I almost failed to recognize you there."

"Er, good to see you too…" Theo started, before Arika turned over to Asuna, who went stiff as a rock herself. The elder of the two looked at Asuna in the eyes, them both being heterochromatic (Really, Arika was as well), and the Queen tilted her head to the side, almost recognizing her.

"Have I seen you before?" Arika asked, actually unknowingly of who Asuna really was.

"You _must_ be a wax figure." Asuna said, deflated at Arika's question. "Come on, don't you know who I am really?"

"Hmmm…" Arika thought deeply whilst looking at Asuna. In the meantime, Negi noticed that Aristodemus was trying to hold his laughter. "Sorry, I don't know you."

Asuna finally snapped. "Onee-chan! I'm your little sister Asuna!" She screamed at Arika. It was then that the Spartan couldn't hold it in.

"Oh?" Arika said, dropping her own act of it, letting out a small smile at the redhead. "I was making a small tease at you, Asuna. Nothing to be upset about."

Asuna looked almost ready to cry, feeling embarrassed. "Onee-chan…"

The Spartan stopped his laughter and wiped a tear from his eye. "Well, if you're going to beat me in making faceless expressions, Arika, wait until you meet special person # 3." He motioned to Negi, who with all his normal behaviour went stiff with large eyes gone blank. Arika almost didn't recognize him at all. In fact, this was the first time she's seen him.

"Who's this?" She asked completely dumbfounded. Negi, knowing that she didn't know, tried to maintain a steady face. Aristodemus just couldn't stop grinning at the situation. The two princesses were just watching as the whole situation developed. It seemed to be somehow very funny or utterly horrifying from their angle of view.

"No bells ringing on his appearance?" The Spartan inquired from the Queen. She shook her head at him. "Come on. Doesn't he resemble anybody you've seen before?" Aristodemus removed the glasses from Negi, giving Arika a rough look at him.

"Nagi?" Arika asked Negi, causing a fall over from the other two girls. "What are you doing being a youth again?"

"Um…" Negi started, trying to find the right words. "I'm not Nagi."

"Then who are you?" Arika asked him, seemingly bored at him. Negi looked almost ready to cry. Note: _Almost._

"His name is Negi." Aristodemus answered for the young magi. "He's Nagi's son."

This caught Arika off guard for a brief second. "Nagi had a son? Well, I reckoned he would find someone to settle down with, eventually."

"He's also _your_ son."

Price for building the Museum of Life: 480 000 dp. Purchasing Arcadia 250 years ago: 2 000 000 000 dp. The look on Arika's face when she heard that the boy standing in front of her is actually her son?

_**Priceless…**_

"Hey, Thorkell-san?" Yuuna raised a hand for the great man to see her. "I got a question. How come you're able to move like a normal human would?"

For your information, they were at the moment traversing through a three dimensional recreation of an ancient battle which occurred in the Migration Period, when humans first came into Mundus Magicus, causing a major war between the Human immigrants and the native people of Mars. The natives had greatswords and magnificently mighty magic users from their part, whilst the humans came in scores in chain mail hauberks, swords and spears and shield, astride horses for their predecessors of Knights. Also, the humans did have magi, which packed a much larger punch than the natives, but were fewer in numbers. Typical of humans, always going for the big guns in battle.

"Ah, that I can really answer." Thorkell the Tall answered. "Right this way, everyone." He motioned for them. Unbeknownst to him, Fate Averruncus had gone missing from the group, off somewhere again.

It took some time before they were in front of the door that led to Aristodemus' personal Collection. Every girl who hadn't already been inside the doors were astounded with large collection. Kazumi almost immediately began taking pictures of the place. Mana, being a gunslinger, went over to the small collection of firearms, and almost started drooling. It was _those_ kinds of guns, and of quality material. Others in the class, save Misora who for some reason had wandered off on her own, were stunned with awe at the size of the collection. How much would these items give in cash, if one were to sell them?

"That, over there." Thorkell pointed at the golden tablet at the far end of the room. "That's the Tablet of Rameses the Great, the greatest Pharaoh in the history of Egypt." He approached it, along with the girls, getting attracted to the gold. "In case you wonder, Rameses was obsessed with ensuring that he would become a true immortal."

"Let me guess." Yue started up. "He had the priests create something that would promise him the youth of the gods?"

"In a way." Thorkell answered. "In every aspect, Pharaohs were considered gods by the people in Egypt, but Rameses was the first to actually get the idea that magic could make him immortal. All the others focused on controlling the outer aspects. He turned to the inner. So he had this thing crafted, and then enhanced so that it would keep him alive."

"But now, Rameses is dead." Yue said, contrasting the idea that it worked. "How come that it worked in the first place?"

"It did work." Thorkell retorted, reciting some old book he probably read once. "The normal lifespan for a man in that time was only 40, 50 if you were lucky. Rameses ruled for over 80 years. Then someone turned that thing off."

"AAAAIIIIIEEEEE!" Misora's screams were heard from outside the hall, making the big Viking run outside to see the nun running from something big. And around the corner, came a big dragon, apparently the one that used to be in the main hall. "It's gonna eat me! It's gonna eat me!"

"Get behind me." Thorkell instructed the nun, who went behind him as the dragon came closer. Thorkell leaned back, retracted his right hand to behind his back, clenched it into a fist and… apparently punched the dragon right on the nose at the opportune moment. The dragon went reeling back, though the punch wasn't enough to make it go flying back, it certainly stopped. "Bob, what have we told you not to try and eat the visitors! You just don't have the innards for it!" He scolded the relatively small dragon. "Don't give me that look, you brought it down on you. Now go back to the entrance and greet more visitors, before I'll the tablet make you go completely stiff."

The dragon did what it was told to.

"That…" Yuuna said, as the whole class had seen the event go on right in front of their eyes. "…Was the most awesome thing I've ever seen in my life."

"Really?" Misa inquired.

"Since when have you guys seen a guy talking down a dragon? Come on!" Yuuna answered that one.

"May I point out for you, that that dragon was actually smaller than the normal ones here in the Magic World, and that Thorkell-san is a giant himself, and apparently very strong himself?" Yue retorted for the basketball player, who went somewhat grumbling to herself.

"Thanks for that comment, midget." Thorkell said, giving off a sweat drop if he could. "But the real me would never be able to accomplish something like that, even if I wanted to."

"Um, I have another question." Ako peeped out, raising a hand for him to see him. She seemed quite frightened at the sight of him.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Well, I was in here earlier and I stumbled upon that old cloak last time." She pointed to the patchwork cloak which hung on the same wall it was on yesterday, being ragged and stuffed with patchworks. "Why is that here along with all this other stuff?"

Thorkell stayed quiet for a while, staring at the cloak first, then down at Ako. He walked over to her, him clearly towering above her so much; she would almost wet her panties. He kneeled down to look at her in the eye. "You really want to know about that old thing?" She didn't speak, just nodded at him. "When I was installed here long ago, I asked Aristodemus about that old cloak once." Thorkell said as he rose up and walked over to it. "He never really told me the whole story, just said that that old rag is the first addition to this whole collection. I've seen him install weapons, armor, trinkets and artefacts for a long time, and not once, has he moved that thing, nor has he ever cleaned it, or kept it in good condition. And every time you take a look behind it…" Thorkell moved the cloak to reveal a small gap behind the cloak, showing a small show of a long table in a mess with a group of people sitting close to each other, whilst there was one lone figure sitting at the other end, wearing the old cloak. "You see this. I have no idea why he made that, but it's his background, and I respect that."

Setsuna shook her head slightly at the sight. "I guess all great warriors, have something sad happened to them in the past."

"True that." Thorkell said. "But, let's not dwell too much in here. How about we go meet the other historical people that are inside this museum?" Now that notion everyone could agree on. Not a good idea to dwell too much on the past.

_**Now where did Fate go?**_

Fate Averruncus was waiting for his supposed meeting in the war room, which had been cleared of everyone historic, due to him asking. All he had to do was mention that it was private and urgent, and everyone respected his wish. Looking at the architecture of the place was… somewhat breathtaking. The Strategou had spared no expense in getting apparently folders filled to the brim of defensive actions, invasion plans and detailed maps of the whole Magic World. These plans would be invaluable to anyone who saw them. It would certainly help him. But as a sign of respect for the great war master, he would look.

In truth, he had made dealings with the Strategou in the past. Well, first time was actually done with Prime, the first one. Back then, they had to gain some volunteers before, and the results were quite astounding. Though it did cost a petty sum.

Ten years later, he had been bringing the other 57 war-orphans here to Arcadia. Why? Because above all things, the Spartan Hounds had been working with ensuring the safety of such orphans, and their rehabilitation into societies where they could fit in. Of course, that would happen when they were about 18 years of age. Most had been about 15-16, so they were still in Ithaca. In his time here, he had actually been visiting them, seeing how they've been doing, and also seeing how they got along with each other.

All nice and all. Some willing volunteers, but frankly, they could get more training here than they could with him. The Spartan Hounds was also world famous for its battle training, to the level of almost very few non government organizations could match them. But there were records of eye witnesses seeing some of the higher levels taking down even AAA fighters and AA was a small match for them.

That alone was enough for people to think twice about fighting them, at least those who has heard of them. Cosmo Entelecheia could count itself lucky that the Strategou hadn't entered the war until the very end. And even then, it was not the full force.

The door opened to reveal Aristodemus, clad in some sort of suit covered by a black cloak for magi. "Sorry I'm late, Averruncus. I had to store the purple bloods in a private room."

"Purple bloods?" The construct inquired.

"It's like blue blood, only royalty."

"Well then. I believe this meeting has been postponed for too long." Fate said, going serious, and the holoscreens of Earth and the surrounding space, all the way from Mars to the Asteroid belt was activated. In addition, what seemed like small triangular blips showed up as well, on a course for Earth. "I got valuable information that I'm positive of that the Githyanki will do."

Aristodemus was instantly at Fate's side, eyeing the blips that represented ships coming towards the Earth. "I'm all ears, Averruncus. Throw me every possible outcome with this scenario."

_**Back to Negi and his mother…**_

Seeing tea being spit out of Arika's mouth after hearing the news didn't seem very good for his part, or Theo's. Aristodemus had been kind to give them a private room, albeit a room designed as a basis for housing a Harem. Honestly, what kind of stuff has Aristodemus-san been experiencing? They could see that he had been in battles, but having been invited to a harem? That wasn't expected.

"How did you even get…?" Arika asked them, to which they looked away for a brief moment.

"We don't even know ourselves." Asuna answered first to her elder sister.

"Um…" Theo began at first then. "…Spur of the moment?"

"And we even have no idea why we did it." Negi said, much to Arika's chagrin. The Queen clung to her temple and sighed. And ever on, the trio of prince and princesses kept thinking that this was the actual Arika, Queen of Vespertatia and Negi's mother. But as they knew from experience of what Godel told them, this wasn't Arika. The real one had died, but of what, they didn't know. "Mother, from what we can see on you, you think that it's something that was planned outside our knowledge but it wasn't."

"Really?"

"Really." Negi answered her.

Arika didn't answer at first, but she got up from her seat and walked over to Negi. As he was sitting on a chair as well, she kneeled down to his eye level and then hugged him tight. Asuna and Theo decided not to intervene on that matter. "I'm just… confused myself." Arika spoke up eventually. "My own memory goes back only 18 years, so as far as I can remember really, is that you were never even conceived." Arika let out a small smile, even though Negi couldn't see it.

"But... you're kind of glad that the real you had a child with the one she loved, right?" Negi had to asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Arika let go of him and stood up. "Now, is there something else we can talk about?"

"Well, I'm thinking about the riddle that Aristodemus-san told me yesterday when we arrived." Asuna said, gaining the wax figure's attention. When asked about it, she repeated the riddle for them to hear it.

"'I died a year past after the Hot Gates had been taken by the Medeans led by He who rules Heroes with the bow and the spear.'" Arika said to herself whilst pacing around the room.

"I don't know really what he meant by that, and he is not one to give clues either." Asuna continued. "I only know that he taught Muay Boran and such, but other than that he know ancient Muay Thai, I don-"

"It's translated." Arika cut her off.

"Wait, what?" Asuna had to make sure that she heard right.

"Aris translated the riddle." Arika informed them, using the nickname that people had for the Spartan in case they couldn't pronounce his name properly. "Well, he actually translated the three names in the riddle to have you work your head a little. The actual riddle is: 'I died a year after Thermopylae was taken by the Persians led by Xerxes with the bow and the spear.' That might give you some help."

It did. In just a flash of brainblast (_word copywrighted by Jimmy Neutron_), Asuna got another memory to her head. And this one was just the one she needed. It was the one when Aristodemus told her his real age when she asked about it. "I remember now!"

"Do you now?" Theo asked the redhead.

"Yes." Asuna answered that one. "And I think I can rightfully go tell that old geezer his real age right now." She finished with a smile, making Negi spit out his drink of tea when she said 'Geezer'.

"Well then, shall we go see him then?" Arika said, walking over to the door. One last thing." She turned to Theo, who went stiff yet again. "Theodora, I expect you to maintain a good relationship with my son, as you two are married, despite what others would say."

"Um, yes." Theo responded to that one with a blush. When the Queen opened the door, she found a tall man, clad in elegant bright colours made to fit a great robe or dress for men. In accordance, a great Middle-Eastern crown lay on his head. But in contrast to his elegant silk clothing, a leather belt held a sword-sheat with the weapon in it, and another sheath on his other side, but this one was designed to hold a bow. And it did, as a composite bow was in there, followed by a quiver of arrows underneath the sheath holding the sword.

"Cyrus? Why were you eavesdropping on us?" Arika demanded of the Persian king.

"I did not arrive here with the intention to work as a spy for our good master of this palace. I have been sent here as a messenger." Cyrus, the apparent Persian king responded at the Queen's demand, giving a bow at her. "Aristodemus informed me to tell young prince Negi that if he wants more information, then he would have to clash with the Captain of the Spartiate in close quarters."

"I had a feeling it would come to that, eventually." Negi said flat-toned. "Would you mind telling him that I accept the challenge, Kurush Wusurg?" Negi asked the Persian, referring to the King's proper name in Persian.

"Very well. I shall inform the good Captain. But first, let's find your friends and have them armed, as I'm sure that Aristodemus will surely want them to do battle as well." Cyrus gave a bow to the young prince and began to walk away, causing them to follow due to his words. "I believe Leonidas would have something for them to use."

"Leonidas?" Asuna asked the great king. "The first?"

"Yes, a good man from what I've learned. He and I speak together on the occasion. I believe I would have sent his body to his home-town had we clashed in real life." Cyrus answered the red headed princess.

* * *

Apparently, Cyrus had spoken the truth about Leonidas. The King of Sparta was indeed in the Museum as well, but he wasn't in the ancient bronze cuirass. This time he was fully armoured in full plate mail armour with chain mail underneath. It moved with his body smoothly and decorated with old insignias of the Greek Gods, primarily that of Zeus, Nike and Hades.

And he was the keeper of the museum's _other _armoury. Here, the girls were arming themselves with weapons of their choice. Yuuna for example, went with a Greek Linothorax, an efficient armour made of seveal layers of linen, fixed with small scales of bronze. The twins, not being effective at combat, were in fact deemed not able to fight, and therefore were told to go to the personal collection. Even if they didn't want, no one refused an order from a _king_, no matter how long he's been dead. Satsuki who had accompanied them mainly for the cooking recipes, excused herself and went off to find a good restaurant on the island instead. Chisame, no surprise that she didn't want to fight, but she was deemed able to join, thanks to a record of keeping people sane. Cyrus tld her to stick with them, but she was only equipped with a rather long dagger in case she was attacked and a badge showing that she was not someone to fight at all. Why there were those, she didn't care, she was just glad that she didn't have to fight.

And surprisingly, someone was still alive. "Okay, everyone, listen up!" Chamo called to their attention.

"How come he's still alive?" Misa asked nobody, being clad in a cloak and holding a neat staff, much similar to the one Negi has.

"First of all, let me tell the newcomers about this." Chamo continued. "You've all seen Negi go up against the best, and each time, he has been successful in getting some rewards about his father's past. This time is no different, save that it's about his mother. There is a good chance that all of you will have to fight as well, so without further ado, shall we make ourselves prepared as well?" He finished with a leer.

"What do you mean?" Madoka asked the ermine.

"We do the Pactio." Chamo answered her. "In order to get full potential, we initiate the contracts between master and disciple."

"Chamo-kun, I don't really think we should do that..." Negi tried to stop his familiar, but in vain.

"Come on, Aniki. You're getting that artifact you had with Theo again and having more artefacts to use is a good idea here." Chamo responded on that. "That Aris guy only knows that you got fifteen contracts, and we got more than enough people to make him think again."

"I hate to say, but for once, Ero-Chamo has a point." Asuna said. "Problem is, who's going first?"

There were some discussion on that for awhile, that they didn't notice someone opening and closing the door. "How about Madoka goes first?" Asuna said, catching the dark haired cheerleader off-guard. "You're the first member we've had in a while, and you're willing to get strong. You go first, in my opinion."

"Eh, Wait a minute, can't I have a say in this?" Madoka tried to protest whilst she was being pushed into the circle that Chamo was drawing on the floor for long term usage, by Setsuna and Kaede.

"Nope, sister." Chamo responded as he was done, and Negi was pushed into the circle by Asuna and Konoka. "Prepare to meet your master."

"Isn't it 'Prepare to meet your mak—MMMmmmpphh!'" Madoka felt her first kiss being taken away as her mouth was forced on to Negi's own. She heard Chamo shout 'Pactio' and a whoosh of light came from below. As soon as the hands holding her to Negi let go, she pulled back immediately. "Bwah! What the hell, guys?!" She screamed at them.

"Sorry, but that's how it goes." Kaede said nonchalantly.

"Don't go nonchalant on me, here!" Madoka shouted with anger in her voice. Now she _did_ sound like a boy. "What'd you do that for?"

"It was for the card, Madoka-nee-san." Chamo said, holding up a card for her to see. Madoka was facing to the front, alongside a decorated warhammer, its head being on the ground. She is grinning widely, her hands resting on the handle of the hammer. She is dressed in her school uniform with a baldric across and a dark blue jacket on top of it. The Tonus of her card is Rubor, or red, and the celestial body of hers is Mars, like Asuna. Her Virtue is Temperance and the direction is actually West, or Occidens as the card says. Finally, her student number was set, XII in the top left and the bottom right. "Oh, this is a fine card. Aniki, we got a new combat partner."

"Huh." Setsuna said, having a look at it as well. "I figured Madoka-san to be a fighter as well."

"Here's your card, Madoka-san." Negi said, handing a copy of the card to the cheerleader.

"Um, thank you." Madoka said before being tackled by Ayaka.

"I demand to be next!" The class represetative shouted before laying her lips on Negi as well. Once again, a card appeared. Only this time, they had to pull Ayaka off Negi from keeping kissing him.

"Anyone else?" Chamo asked, but the general crowd was embarrassed by the fact that they had to kiss him in order to make a Pactio. "Okay listen up. A-"

"Hold on, Chamo-san." Theo interrupted him. "I have yet to invoke our Pactio, again." The horned princess was a bit nervous since she felt some killing aura hidden somewhere in the crowd, but she ignored it for the time being and kissed Negi in the circle. This time, the card that showed had Negi on it, in his cloak and holding the artefact that allowed him the power to use other's artefacts as well.

"Okay, as I was saying, all you need to do is to say 'Adeat' and the artefact will manifest. 'Abeat' and the artefact goes away." Chamo continued where he was cut off.

The two girls who had initiated a pactio with the prince said the word to activate the artefact and they came forth. Madoka's was just as on the card, a great ornamented warhammer which would be held in two hands, but it seemed like she could easily wield it with one hand. On the handle of it said the words 'Ministra Magi Kugimiya Madoka'. The head of the weapon had both a flat end and a pointy end, allowing her to make big holes in stuff. Ayaka's seemed at first to be an elegant dress, but it turned eventually to be just a necklace. The dress was only for decoration. What the necklace could do was at the best, unknown. A necklace could have many functions, but it did depend on the bearer of the jewellery.

"Nice." A new voice cut them off, and they found Godel leaning against the wall next to the door. "Oh don't mind me." He said, holding up a hand, seeing their frowning faces among the senior members. "I just wanted to give you guys a warning."

"A warning?" Kotarou asked, not too happy to see that guy in this place of all.

"It's about your new friend, Aristodemus." Godel said with a smug. Since there were two residents of the museum and two kings no less, he motioned for them to join him outside. Once a small group of them, namely Negi, Kotarou, Asuna, KonoSetsu as they were nicknamed, Chizuru and Chachamaru were outside the room whilst the others were preparing, Godel started to continue. "If I were you, I wouldn't be so quick to trust that man. He's not of the trustful and loyal sort."

"What makes you say that?" Asuna asked of him. She only knew him from what Negi had told her.

"Aristodemus has... done things. Things that he proclaimed were for the greater good of this world, but they were mainly for his own personal gain. And I got proof to show of this."

"Care to elaborate on this matter?" Setsuna demanded of the governor. "I for one have developed a sense of respect for the man, but unless you bring proof of his 'misdeeds', we-"

"I know for a fact he delivered troops to Cosmo Entelecheia during the war." Godel said, taking all of them by surprise. "He also were among those who sentenced Arika-sama to execution as well." That caught Negi by surprise, big time. "In addition, he also sheltered those agents of Cosmo they captured, it wouldn't surprise me if he was the leader of-"

"That is a lie." Fate's voice cut the governor off. He was accompanied by his Ministra, all seeming angry at the Shin mei master. "Our agents were all imprisoned for life save one. And he is still under surveillance to this day."

"Where've you been, Fate?" Setsuna asked the construct. "It's awfully convenient that you show up now and not earlier."

"I come when I wish it to, Saku-. No, it would be Konoe Setsuna." Fate said, reminding the swordswoman of her marriage to Konoka. "For your information, I was just returning from having an important talk with the Spartan."

"Well, it may have been a lie, but know this as well, Negi-kun." Godel continued, undisturbed by the construct's presence. "Aristodemus was also the main person behind the attack on your home-town."

That piece of news shook Negi to the core. Aristodemus-san, a good friend of his mother, and well respected in the magic world, was the main culprit of it all? Come to think of it, he would definitely have connections to the Senate in his position. He also had close relationships with some of the Magic World's most important, to the extent that no one would suspect him.

"Sad really." Godel continued whilst Negi's mood worsened, accompanied by Magia Erebea, which made him look dark and somewhat aflame. "I had hoped that he was really a good guy, but in the end, he's just a trai-" He didn't get to finish that due to someone punching him really hard in the face, making him fly away from Negi.

"Thorkell-san?" Konoka asked the giant in chain mail who had punched away the governor-general. The Viking didn't seem very happy and therefore he looked back at her with a furious face. He had also taken off his fur coat, revealing his massive muscular arms, bared. He was unarmed, for now.

"What you just said there, little man, is a lie." Thorkell told Godel, as he rose up. "Aristodemus is not one to make angry, nor me for that fact."

"I have evidence on my side, brute." Godel retorted back. "Do you?"

"I have no proof to show." Thorkell responded. "But you did break against Arcadia's social rule. Here, one must tell the truth. And you broke it. You hear that, boys?"

"We did." Leonidas said behind him, having his helmet on. It had no visor, nor was it an old Corinthian helmet. It was made out of steel and had airholes, allowing him to breath and a eye line giving him eyesight. It also had a crest on top with red colour, this being Crimson. He also had a medium sized shield which was round and made of bronze, but pained decoratively to show not only the lambda but also another symbol, that of Athena. Along with him was Cyrus with his bow drawn.

"Son." Cyrus addressed Negi, who turned his head to the Persian king. "Believe that man if you want to for now, but if you want the truth, you'll have to see the Captain about it. We are too busy to talk right now." He drew his bow with a vicious looking arrow and fired at Godel.

The arrow missed Godel, who dodged at the last second. "You missed." Then again, it exploded right behind him, the shock wave knocking him forward.

"Relax Godel, we're not going to kill you." Thorkell said, now brandishing two great axes and holding them ready for battle. "We're just going to hurt you _real_ good."

And as they clashed with the governor-general, Fate walked over to a Negi being held and tried comforted by Chizuru. "Negi-kun, I'm not going to tell you anything on what to do, but I'm not going to let you go galloping off on your own, even if you have an army of Ministra. I'm coming with you."

"Huh?" The others around them said whilst Fate forbade his girls to accompany them. "What do you mean by that?" Asuna demanded of him.

"Are you still an idiot, princess?" Fate asked Asuna, who flinched. "I'm not doing this because I like it. I'm doing this because since we are stuck together in a world collaborating crisis and that this situation needs to get over with quickly so we can focus on the Githyanki threat. Besides, if we are allies albeit temporarily, we might as well start on it."

A quite sound argument which they had little to use in their own argumentation against. Fate was their ally for now and such power was little to be found.

"He's through that door." A man in armour similar to Leonidas' own, pointed at a great door that stood in the far corner of the hall. "And son, you believe what you want, but I tell you this from what I know myself: Never would sir Aristodemus make a betrayal against your bloodline." With that, he put his helmet on, which lacked a crest and shouted something to signal his fellow men in armour to aid the trio of residents against Godel, being quite able to dodge their attacks, even if the arrows were dangerous themselves.

"Okay." Negi said finally, being free of his dark magic and telling Chizuru that he was alright. He was later accompanied by the rest of the class. "Everyone, follow me. We're going to meet Aristodemus in battle, and it's happening now."

With that, the class minus the twins and Satsuki, entered through the first door to face challenge number one.

– **To be continued...**

**

* * *

**

-Actually, the whole marriage between Negi and Theo is a disaster in some people's eyes. Negi and Theo are both royalty, and since the Magic World is in a medieval style to begin with, this would be normal. However, as I'm concerned, North and South do not have the best relations, even after the War. And the Senate of Mesembria has some rather bad sides to it, so they would want to get rid of Negi, from what we've seen of them so far. The whole marriage might give Negi protection from the Senate in the short run and he & co would be safe from them. But in that they got married means also that the Senate could use this in order to accuse the Emperor for bringing in a dangerous criminal and son of the most dangerous monarch they have ever known (in what they believe) into his personal safety, giving them full reason to march in and try to arrest Negi, but also Theo and the Emperor would not approve of this action, therefore meaning that in the long run, another war could pop up. And that concludes it, dear readers; I have a frightening knowledge of politics.

**-Anyone wonder so far, Thorkell the Tall, or Torkell Höge as he is known here in Scandinavia, was a Viking chieftain of the Jomsvikings, a Norse equivalent of the Spartans. Thorkell was at least 2 metres tall, hence his title. He helped king Canute get the throne of England after a Viking invasion led by Canute's father, and some time later he disappeared, never mentioned in the runes again. This Thorkell is based on a depiction of him from the manga Vinland Saga, which I recommend deeply. There, he is a Blood Knight, even going as far as betraying his own comrades just to fight someone stronger. Read Vinland Saga if you want to know more.**

**-Cyrus the Great or Kurush Wusurg in Old Persian, was the founder the great Persian Empire with whom the Greek fought with in the Greco-Persian Wars. He is also proclaimed by the Greeks as the Greatest King there has ever been and who there ever will be. Personally, I took his name for myself when I changed it from Fashtar to my current one.**

**-To be honest with you, I find Godel... an ass-hole. There, I've said it. But come on, who doesn't? He curses Arika in front of Negi, he takes collateral damage as means to make his first strike self-defence, he injures the hero, blackmails him into coming to Kurt, drives Negi mad with revenge, attempts to get himself killed, therefore ruining any chance Negi has with the Senate, wishes to take over the World, and all claiming he does it for Negi's mother. Sounds like an 21st century Bill O'Reilly to me. (Ha Ha!) Come on, everyone does that these days, I had to get a Bill O'Reilly joke.**

**A/N: Well, that's it for now, folks. A little announcement to make. The riddle is now abolished. I don't care if you know the right age or year, all I want now is a rather good hypothesis on who Aris is, and what happened to him, and you'll be eligible to submit an OC to me. Once this arc is over, chapter 26 or so (I'm cutting it short), those who got the sheets I send out will submit them back so that we can get back on track with how Nodoka is doing. For now, wait until the next chapter.**


	23. Angel Without A Sense of Mercy

**A/N: And we're off. I'm cutting it short now, so it will be this and three more chapters before we call it quits on the Arcadia arc. I honestly had no idea how many chapters there was going to be, though I was hoping for eight. Read on.**

* * *

The first door they passed through wasn't leading directly to Aristodemus. This room was filled with pillars, each about 50 cm in diameter, with a strong base and stood away from each other by some 3 meters. The pillars were too tall for them to actually see the roof, as there was a shroud of darkness up there. The room was very large, they couldn't see where the next door if there was one was. But the room also gave off something of an eerie aura around them, as if something or some_one_ was watching them from somewhere.

"Aristodemus-san?" Ako called out, the name echoing out between the pillars. No one answered.

"Did you really think that would work?" Asuna asked the blue haired healer in their group. She was equipped in a half plate steel armor, granting her good protection. Beats having Goth Loli style outfits.

"It never hurts to try, really." The nurse responded to that. Good point.

"Ah! Over there!" Yuuna shouted to get their attention to where she pointed. There was a minor form kneeling down in front of them in the shadows. Takane, being now an expert of Okiamancy, brought on a little light for them, as Okiamancy meant that one could control shadows in virtually any way.

"No way…" Setsuna said to herself as she and the others found themselves staring straight at Rachel, fully dressed in leather armor, with one neat addition. Her left shoulder was covered by a bright steel shoulder guard, along with some splint mail going down to the elbow. In front of the little girl, there was a blade. It was bent, but unlike the Japanese Katana that was bent slightly backwards towards the wielder, this one was heavy and bent actually _forwards_, in the opposite direction of the normal curved blades. Her eyes were also closed.

Rachel was humming a tune from something, but they couldn't really place it. "I could have sworn I heard that tune before." Yuuna said to herself, scratching her chin. But her voice made the short leather armored girl open her eyes and look at them with them glowing red.

"Welcome, Ala Alba and Fate Averruncus…" She greeted them, rising up and picking up her wicked curved blade. She also wore two bracelets made out of bronze, shimmering like gold. And in addition, she wore a neat necklace around her neck. It had a silver line, with a triangle topaz in the center. "I was told to keep you occupied for a while here, if that's okay with you." She said with a low volume on her voice and a rather happy tone to it at the same time, and keeping a creepy smile on her face.

"Um…" Asuna stepped forward to face Rachel. "Rachel-chan, do you know where Aristodemus-san is?"

"Through that door." Rachel motioned with her head to a great door, to her right. "But it's locked and I got the key right here." She held it up for them to see the key, being in a chain around her neck. "You want it, you have to fight me."

_**Bang!**_

The gunshot was clear and straight, going straight onto Rachel's forehead, making the smaller, tanned girl go backwards thanks to the forehead being a sensitive area and it was pretty powerful gun. Mana had shot Rachel, straight on, no questions asked, none answered.

"Simple as a cake." Mana stated at them, looking at her.

"Well, this certainly makes things…" Asuna started at first.

"Aww, you gave me a boo-boo!" Rachel's voice was heard, as if nothing had happened to her at all. "Or rather..." She continued, emerging instead from behind a pillar, along with a double of herself walking right next to her. "...you gave _us _a boo-boo." She had an even creepier smile now.

_Shadow Clones?_ Kaede thought as more and more Rachels were coming forth around them, each armed with a wicked blade like the one the first one had. Speaking of which, the first one rose up from her fallen position, cracking her neck in response to the gunshot that had left a bruise on her forehead.

"I wasn't Aristodemus' _onadoz_ for nothing. He taught as much as I needed about how to fight good." Rachel #1 said. She held a stance similar to the Kenjutsu style with her blade. Although the stance was similar, it had a more archaic approach. It also appeared to be Western in origin.

"Something before we commence." Negi spoke up, holding the silver sword he had acquired recently. The first Rachel responded by slightly lowering her sword, if it could be called that. "Since you are his disciple, I trust that Aristodemus-san had told you the real truth about what happened in the past."

Rachel gave a smile. "You don't really see the big issue here, Negi-chan. Oshishou-sama has done bad things in the past, he doesn't hide that. But it's really up to oneself to call an action good or bad." She had her eyes closed giving the answer. "I know I've committed crimes myself, but I don't really feel bad about it."

"But that is really not the issue here." Negi said.

"Correct." Rachel responded, having her eyes open now.

"This is a yes or no question: Did Aristodemus-san supply troops to Cosmo Entelecheia during the war?"

Rachel took a deep breath before answering. "Yes."

The young prince was on her in a flash, brandishing the silver blade. All the other Rachels stood on standby eyeing the group of girls plus the two boys there. Negi swung the sword at her, but since he was never trained in the art of swordsmanship, his actions were predictable. Rachel dodged and blocked his movements, using her weapon in her left hand like a fencer. She just had to have a smug on her face. Negi went at her with a concentrated poker face, but the girl was too skilled with her own weapon to keep him at bay. Going for a high slash at her, Negi put his whole body weight into that attack, in an attempt to make her tumble back from the attack. Only to find that she managed to block the attack, and then gave swift piston powered kick into his joint section where his pelvis probably were, making him go back instead.

"Ara, I thought Arika-sama's son would be better than that." Rachel said somewhat disappointed. "I'm only AAA, no match for the Twilight Imperial Prince, surely."

"You are only AAA?" Negi said disturbed, his sword changing into a spear, a weapon he was trained in properly. "Don't make fun of me here!" He prepared to charge at her, initiating a shundou move to close the distance.

"Incidentally, you know the most efficient way to beat a spearman?" Rachel asked calm, grasping her weapon with both hands now as Negi came at her. And at the same instant Negi had appeared before her with the shundou, she had deflected the spear point with the blade part of her weapon, leaving him all open for an attack. Which she pulled still the same grin all the time, leaving behind her a wounded Negi with a clean cut across his chest. "You just deflect the pointy end."

"Negi-kun!" Yuuna charged at Rachel #1, only to have the small girl counter her sword swing with a step to the side, and a chop to the basket ball player's neck.

"Is that really all you have, little kids?" Rachel asked as Yuuna lay semi-conscious at her feet. Asuna came at her with a shundou and gave a rather nasty elbow strike right to the little girl's temple, making Rachel fly backwards and land roughly on the floor. "Now that is what I want to see." She said quite undisturbed.

"What's it going to take to beat you?" Asuna asked frustrated. "You get shot in the head and then you're still conscious from my move." Rachel rose from her position, again cracking her neck. "And still you're able to move."

"Heh. If it was you whom Aristodemus took on as a full apprentice in the world of martial arts, Asuna-chan, you would have learned that the key to every victory is a strong body." Rachel said, spitting some blood from her mouth, due to Asuna's vicious attack. "I didn't choose a single style of martial arts, nor did I go the full way of a fighter. I am that I am. A rogue and a berserker." She spoke in a soft tone, but when they heard 'berserker', the girls (most of them) got stiff. Then Rachel gave a gib grin at Asuna. "Maa, that's just me going on. I hate all that philosophy stuff and going on all about yourself. We're here to fight, not talk after all." She held up her hand and snapped her fingers. That was the signal for the rest of the Rachels to come at them.

* * *

It was at best, mixed success and failure going against Rachel and her legion of clones. Whilst the more combat oriented and experienced members of the White Wing bashed away the dozens of small, medium armoured girls with wicked blades with relative ease, the magic users and noncombatants had major difficulty holding even one of them off. Good for them that Theo, the latest member of what became popularly known as 'Nagi Springfield's Harem', was charged with protecting them. But having one of them run all the time on magical sneakers (Misora is apparently a big coward) made that task not easy.

Fate, their temporary ally, had no trouble at all vanquishing the squads of Rachels that came at him. Maintaining his posture, the white haired construct was by far the toughest opponent that the blade using girl had, so far on a personal level. But frankly, the clones didn't really seem all too interested in him, apparently.

"Get...them... off... me!" Ayaka shouted as she was literally being glomped and groped by three Rachels, all going on about how gorgeous she was and how 'admirable' she must be when in bed. The real Rachel certainly didn't hold back on her own words. "Can SOMEONE help me here?!" Ayaka shouted again, as she was apparently unable to hold them off.

"Hands off!" Asuna came to the blonde's rescue, bashing away the three glompers with no trouble at all and the three of them dissipated into fade before two others. "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but back away from my wife!" She screamed at the two standing in front of her. They promptly backed down. Ayaka felt a certain twitch at hearing the word 'wife'.

"Well, aren't you a cute couple?" Another Rachel, this time groping Asuna, sliding her hands underneath the clothing and having the real feel of flesh. You can probably guess what the princess' reaction is at this point. "MMMmmm... not bad. You've gotten a lot bigger than last time..."

_Last time!? _Asuna thought to herself as this Rachel was blown away by Negi, who despite his wound, was putting up quite a fight. He had left the sword with Yuuna, who had woken up due to him saving her from being stripped by two Rachels. "Thanks, Negi."

"Don't thank me yet." Negi responded said as Zazie put a hand on his head as leverage to to jump up among the pillars in order to fight against a group of seven leather armored girls with wicked blades. Negi didn't really seem to mind that, but he fired off three arrows to make things easier for the acrobat.

"I need some help over here!" Kotarou shouted to anyone, throwing off scores of the clones, but still restrained by his principle not to hit girls. And at the same time, he was protecting Natsumi and Mei, who had trouble themselves. Takane, was using her own legions of shadow soldiers to hold off the main force of Rachels, who were more keen on molesting rather than fighting.

"On its way, Kotarou-kun." Yue came to him, outfitted in her Knight Valkyrie armor that Ariadne had been kind to grant her after she had left their service, courtesy of President Seras. She also had her sword from them. The little philosopher was Negi's best student in magic now, with Nodoka in second. She also functioned as a teacher as well. As for the matter at hand, she figured that it was fine slicing the clones with her blade and many that befell Kotarou fell beneath her own sword.

"Um, is that fine, just killing them?" Kotarou asked her after she was done slicing the clones apart. "I mean, any of them could be the right one."

"They're not." Yue responded. "And as long as there is more than one, it's fine to kill as many as we please. Besides, she's really making it hard for us to not make such moves."

"Point taken." Kotarou responded. "But a guy shouldn't really hit girls. I'm that kind of guy. Even if she's blocking our path, I'm not gonna hit her."

"So, you don't mind me taking good care of your wife?" Rachel's voice came from behind them and they saw two Rachels, each groping Natsumi and Mei respectively. "You know, you're one lucky guy to have this litte cute girl as your wife, even if it is a title." She turned her attention to the two girls in distress. "Natsumi-chan, Kota-chan is a really nice guy. I am what you would call jealous of you. But surely you might want more than a little marriage out of this." Natsumi could see Kotarou boil with rage as he watched on, deciding at the same time about what to do. "In case you're wondering," the Rachel groping her continued as if she read her mind. "I was thinking of something called... _offspring_." That made Kotarou snap, but being a guy who doesn't hit girls, he couldn't do anything.

"I could stop her, Kotarou-san," Yue said standing next to him, but she didn't want to hurt her two friends. "if only you'd let me."

Ignoring them, the Rachel holding Mei began whispering in the pyromancer's ear, but with intention that Kotarou would hear. "I can tell and _smell_ it on you, Mei-chan." Her whisper made Mei stiff whilst still being groped. "You like Kota-chan, don't you?" Mei was blushing like a tomato right now. "Ah, but you also like Negi-chan, right?" Rachel said, making the poor redhead blush in a radiant glow. "I envy you. Aww, but the two of them are already hitched, or is it something else that you would want with them?" Mei was glowing more red than the neon lights that you find in Las Vegas or in the modernized regions of Tibet. "I got it," Rachel said, leaning in very close to Mei's ear. "I think you would make an excellent... _mistress_ to either of them."

_**WHAM! SMASH! **_Just in case you're wondering, that was a pissed off hanyou bashing away the two Rachels groping the two girls, sending the leather armoured clones flying and dissipating into fade and dust as their bodies had been ripped apart by the sheer force of his attack. Kotarou had just broken his vow to not hit girls, but he had done so with very good reason. In his rage, he had gone quite muscular, and he was more furred than normally. Yue, who was going to attack Rachel anyway, sighed in relief.

"Kotarou-kun..." Natsumi began, making him go calm at first, but then she slapped him. "Why did you take so long!? Is your vow more important than me?"

"Sorry, Natsumi-ne... Natsumi, but I've got stuck with the concept that guys should protect girls, not hit them."

"Now that is a really dumb belief if you ask me." Rachel's voice cut Kotarou off before he could continue. This one came alone, wielding one of those blades too. "Honestly, if girls are able to protect themselves, then what use is that idea in the first place? And it's an insult to a warrior's pride."

"So?" Kotarou retorted at her. "I have the right to believe in what I want, alright? What gives you the right to interfere on that?"

"None." This Rachel responded. "But I do know this: To not fight someone, is an insult to their pride. There are no men or women, adult or child, slave or noble on the battlefield. They're all the same: Warriors. Warriors who wants to prove themselves in a fight to the end to see who is the greater and who will bite the dust. And I speak with experience when I say that one who doesn't fight a warrior just because they're different from themself cannot call himself a great warrior." This one seemed a lot more wiser than the rest, but Kotarou knew how to make shadow clones as well, and they always had the same amount of experience that the owner had. So this was coming straight from the owner's own mind. "Well? Are you going to take up your sword and fist against me, or should I bash some real common sense into you, Inugami Kotarou-kun?"

Now that was definitely the mark of an older woman. And she made a very convincing argument there. Only, Kotarou didn't answer her at there, because he didn't stand where she addressed. Instead, he had made a shundou to end up behind the blade wielder and swung his clawed hand at her. She managed to dodge it at the last second, but the necklace she wore was ripped off her by his clawed hand.

Poofs began coming around them. Everywhere in the chamber, the clones of Rachel began disappearing one by one. Eventually the one that Kotarou tried to hit was left, the original one. The little girl in leather could only smile as she saw she was the only one left. In an instant, Negi, Kotarou, Fate, Ku Fei and Asuna were surrounding her, the first one preparing one of his standard attacks. "Raika..."

"It was _so _worth studying the art of..." Rachel began as Negi hit her abdomen with the spell.

"...Houken!" The Lightning Fist crashed right onto Rachel's chest and sent her flying at a high velocity of over 120 mph.

"TAUNTING!" Rachel screamed before she smashed into the wall, and made an explosion on impact. Dust filled the area surrounding the impact zone and some of the girls got coughing from the smoke and dust that consumed them and their poor lungs. Fortunately, it wasn't fatal.

"Phew." Asuna said, as the dust laid down. "Glad that was over."

"That..." Ku Fei began, recalling how the fight went. "...was a very peculiar opponent."

"Well, we do know this:" Negi noted. "She was quite the pervert."

Asuna turned against him on that notion. "You're not one who should say that, Negi."

"Come on, lets get the key and go get that old man. I feel like bashing someone's head in." Kotarou said, smashing his fists together.

**"Then why don't you go with me a little longer?"** A very familiar voice said, stopping their actions immediately. As soon as most of them went "Huh?", a explosion of light and magic occurred, making them cover their eyes from going blind and stepped away. This round was going to be tough. But when they saw their opponent, there was only one thing they could say:

_**Oh Crap...**_

They had met Rachel the pervert. Now they stood against Rachel the _Warrior._ The little girl's eyes was enough to frighten a demon. Also her appearance. Her leather armor was intact from the impact, even though her metal parts had broken. Her bronze bracers were still glowing, even with dust on them. In addition, she had also wings on her back, but while her left wing was white, featherly and angelic, the right wing was leatherly, and had a demonic look to it. But most frightening of all, wings or not, were her eyes. Rachel's stare pierced right through them, her ruby red eyes was matching the color of blood, and she was focusing in on them. Her trusted blade was still at her side, her hands gripping it tightly.

_"Did you honestly think that I would be done in by just one strike?" _Rachel asked them with something of an otherworldly tone, giving most of them shivers down their spines. Mana, being stern as always (even though she was concerned about this fight), tried to shoot Rachel again, only to have the apparent angel/demon block the shot with one of her bracers. Mana tried twice again, same result. After the third attempt, Rachel was on to Mana, giving a double chop to the gunslinger's neck. Mana was down for the count.

Then, all hell broke loose. The blade wielding girl went vicious and ferocious, going instantly for strikes that could potentially kill. She made elbow strikes to heads and chests, gave accurate kicks to abdomens and waists, as well as throwing girls wildly into the pillars. Chisame backed down instantly, holding up her badge that Cyrus had given her. Fortunately, Rachel had enough wit about her to respect that.

Others, who backed down when she looked at them, were also left alone. After about half of them had been smitten by the angel/demon, they considered it wise not to engage her. Negi was not one of them. It was his class, therefore his challenge. But even he fared poorly against the little girl. When he tried to make a strike against her, she merely just grabbed his hand with her left and then gave him a counterattack in the shape of an elbow strike straight on his chin, and in the same swift move, the elbow came back. When she let go of the young Magus, he could only fall down on his back.

"Is that all you have?" Rachel taunted them in her normal voice and her wings were gone. She hadn't sliced anyone with her sword yet, as she was strictly told by her master not to hurt anyone among them, but she wasn't told to not hurt them too much. "I expected more from the famous Ala Alba. But I guess I was wrong. What happened to the band of small fry heroes that stood against the toughest of opponents last year? What went wrong for you when everything you had thought impossible was accomplished by yourselves? Where is the fighting troop that stood against the Magus Aevum back in Ostia?" She demanded of them until she came face to face with the small group of fighters that were still standing: Negi, Fate (who was leaning against a pillar), Kotarou, Asuna, Setsuna, Theo, Konoka, Ku Fei and Kaede.

"As always, your reputation for being relentless is still living up to what it is." Fate praised the blade wielder.

"And yet you don't go against me yourself, Averruncus." Rachel responded with scorn in her voice. She turned to Setsuna, who brandished her sword Yuunagi at her. "And what of you, Setsuna-chan? I thought you were one to relish in odds such as these."

"I'm not like that." Setsuna responded. "Not once have I chosen to take pleasure in battle and smile when I take down my opponents-" She was cut off by a laughter from Rachel.

"Spare me." The little beast said. "It's in your Blood. The Tengu are said to never willingly take up the sword, but when they do, they actually delight in slaying their foes. It's in the blood, Secchan." Rachel dared to invoke Setsuna's pet name that Konoka invented. "You can't resist it. Your Albinism is just going to make it worse for you."

"Hey!" Asuna stepped forward in front of Setsuna. "You haven't got that right to speak to Setsuna like that."

"I certainly have. Arcadia has free speech." Rachel responded to the redhead princess. "She's going to give in to it, eventually. I figured she might as well start. Else, she can't be a full Shinmeiryuu Fighter."

"That is a bold claim." Fate intervened, still leaning on the pillar. "The Shinmei have the reputation of being serene and collected, not battle hungry."

"True, but once they enter the field, there's little that differs them from Youkai." Rachel said. "The Shinmei style is just another martial art if you ask me. Even though I've never faced one before in proper combat, I doubt that it really is the strongest art." Those words went straight into Setsuna's ego. Yes, even she has got one. "And I know personally that Asian martial arts stand little chance against the sheer standing power of the European martial arts."

"She's just taunting you, Setsuna." Asuna warned her friend. "She's not meaning it. It's just a provocation."

"Unfortunately, she's doing a very good job at doing so." Setsuna's angry tone made most of them stiffen. Setsuna turned Asuna aside with her arm and stepped forward. "This is a one-on-one fight. Just you and me, Rachel-san."

Rachel gave a very creepy smile at that. "Fine. I wouldn't have it any way better." The small girl readied her weapon whilst Setsuna called forth her first artifact that she had made with Negi, and then the ax artifact that she had gotten with Konoka.

"Are you prepared for this, Rachel-san?"

"Rachel the Falx is always ready for a fight."

The sheer speed that the two went at each other, was staggering. The spectators could barely see the blows being exchanged between the two. They could at least hear them. Setsuna had several weapons at her command, the small daggers as well as her sword and ax. Rachel had two weapons at her disposal: her Falx and her body. But that Rachel could actually keep up with the Shinmei Hanyou was surprising enough. And even if she had less techniques of combat at her disposal like Setsuna, she certainly had power enough to back it up.

After about 15 minutes (which in combat is actually very long), the two of them disengage from each other. Rachel, being in armor, shows various cuts in the leather, as well as having one of her eyes damaged by a clean cut. There were a few of Setsuna's wakishashis embedded in her arm, and her leg. Setsuna on the other hand, has seen better days. Her face was scratched by Rachel's clawed hand, her outfit (the maid one) was torn and cut in several places to reveal her skin and wrappings, that had also taken a beating. She was bleeding lightly on her cheek, her left arm seemed to be out of place though, and her legs were shaking just to hold her up.

"Still standing, are we?" Rachel asked nonchalant, as if she didn't mind the daggers at all. She also held Setsuna's ax, taken from the Hanyou after their last clash. "I'll remedy that." She tossed away the ax and made out claws in the same hand. Setsuna flinched as the little girl charged at her in the same speed they've been at for some time.

"_Dodge!" _Fate's voice was heard inside Setsuna's head, and she flinched. Seconds before impact, the swordswoman managed to evade the attack. Rachel on the other hand, failed horribly at not hitting the pillar. Next thing everyone knew as the girls that had been hit rose up, her arm was stuck in the pillar and she couldn't seem to get loose.

"Oohhh... Sugar bombs." Rachel pouted as she was stuck in the pillar. Then she tried to pull herself out. That didn't go so well as she expected. "Nngghhnnn! Nghn, nghn, nghn! Nnnnggghhhnnnnn!" She first tried to pull herself normally in one go, then she tried multiple times, the final time before she collapsed down hanging to the pillar was placing her feet on the pillar and use them as leverage to get loose. One would normally expect that that would work.

_I guess all those clones wore her out... _Setsuna thought as she pulled herself up to stand on her legs. Asuna came to support her. "I'm fine. I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Asuna said. "All banged up, bleeding and exhausted. You could have died had you not dodged that last one."

"I'm gonna heal you all up, Secchan." Konoka said as her artifact was activated, but she was stopped by Fate. "Eh?"

"Not that simple." Fate said as he stepped forward to have a look at the Hanyou's injuries. "One big healing is not enough for this kind of injuries. Let me have a look." Setsuna felt reluctant, but she let the white haired magi take a look.

"Ooof..." Madoka came to her feet as well, holding her artifact. The warhammer was strong enough to have her shield against Rachel's vicious attack. Even then, it hurt. "Where is that girl? I don't care if she's as big as the twins, I feel like hitting someone."

"Kugimi, was it?" Fate asked her as he inspected a chest wound on Setsuna. [Kug-i-mi]

"Don't call me Kugimi." Madoka retorted immediately. "Why does everyone get my name wrong?"

"Oh? So it's Kugimi, then?" Fate asked. [Ku-gi-mi]

"It's Kugimiya!" Madoka shouted at him.

"Er, Madoka-san?" Setsuna asked the cheerleader.

"Yeah?"

"You've been to try your hammer, right?"

"Nouh?" This was the sound of Rachel being curious about what was going on at the time.

"Yeah, I got it right here." Madoka held it up.

"Nouh?"

You see Rachel over there being stuck in the pillar?" Fate pointed to the mentioned girl.

Rachel looked at Madoka's hammer at first, and then at the pillar, then shook her head very fast for being exhausted. "Nouh! Nouh! Nouh! Nouh!"

"Help her out, will you?" Asuna asked the cheerleader, who responded yes to that. Madoka decided to make it a hard blow on the pillar.

"NOOOOUUUUHHH!" Rachel screamed as the pillar apparently _exploded_ shortly after Madoka hit the thing with her hammer. The explosion blew away Rachel in one direction. And the cheerleader off in another, and no one was really willing to see if either was still able to stand up on their own.

Negi was at Madoka's side in an instant, along with Misa (Madoka's new wife, remember?) and Sakurako (was apparently the best man, or woman. Whatever). "Madoka-san, are you okay?"

"He, he... Stone tree go boom..."

"Yeah, she's just out of her mind right now." Misa said waving a hand in front of her wife(/husband?)' eyes. Some crumbling of stone away, Rachel managed to stand up. Surprisingly, since they could still see the bundle of stars flying around her head, of different sizes.

"Takes more than that to knock me out." She said as she... limped over to their general direction. "I'm unable to feel..." She stopped right there and then started to groan loudly as blood finally began to come out of her wounds. The daggers that had stuck in her arms and leg.

"What's wrong?" Asuna asked the little girl.

"Nice pain." Rachel said, seemingly ignoring Asuna's question. "Nice pain... I think I need to lie down..." Rachel collapsed on her knees first. "No healing please..." Then she fell down. It was an eerie silence as they saw her being immobile.

"I'm gonna assume we won." Kotarou said as he helped up Chizuru get up on her feet. Kaede went over to the unconscious fighter and snatched the key from her neck.

"Got the key now."

"Good. Let's proceed to the next room." Ayaka said, rising up from the floor next to Chizuru and Kotarou. "I'm through with fighting for once."

"Ah, I remember now!" Yuuna said, since she _used_ to hold up Akira, but she let go when she exclaimed that sentence and gaining some curious looks at her. " remember that tune just then?"

"Just then?" Asuna asked the basket ball player.

"You know when we first saw Rachel-chan?" Yuuna began to explain for them, gaining some nods. "She was humming a tune back then." An 'Okay' was the signal for her to continue her point. "The tune just then was: "Like an angel without a sense of mercy, rise young boy to legend..." That was the tune."

**_Oooh! Is that a new suit, mr. Bunny? Looks like a plug suit..._**

Looking at her with some disturbed looks, they all went to the door and opened it, leaving an unconscious Rachel with a lot of valuable magic items, such as that necklace that can make clones of yourself, a pair of bracers that slow down projectiles, and a neat, shiny blade.

"Argh!" Haruna came back through the door and grabbed those items before going back through the door again. Wait, did she just break the fourth wall there?

* * *

**- For your information, when Rachel was completed fully, it was discovered that her actions corresponded completely with the lyrics "Like an Angel without a Sense of Mercy" from the Evangelion Opening theme song, hence the title. She wasn't based on the song, we were quite unaware of it until _after_ she was done. That was what she was humming at the start.**

**- And no, she is not a demon. She only specializes in transformation magic. The wings were just for show when she turned serious. But hey, you can always speculate.**

**-This is why I actually encourage dirty fighting when I gave you those tips for making a good OC. Dirty fighting lets you fair better against tougher opponents and greater numbers. Honestly, who cares about honor when your life is on the line with an iron anchor tied to your feet and you're about to sleep with the fishes? I'm talking survival here, something which some people apparently have forgotten about fighting dirty.**

**-Two things on this. Look at the last page in chapter 252, where KonoSetsu becomes official in the manga. From what can be seen of Setsuna's new card, her new artifact does seem to be an ax, not her sword. What it does or what it's named, we don't know, so I'll keep the name hidden for now. Oh, and Rachel's weapon is called a Falx, an old Dacian weapon. Nyrath chose it because in history, it's the only weapon in over 200 years since the reforms of the Roman army, that made the Romans change their personal equipment for soldiers.**

**A/N: Right, that was the end of that. I did want to add a third bit to the chapter, but hey, due to Internet connection malfunctions I had to skip the final bit. Shame, I did want to see her go berzerk. But hey, I can add it at a later date if you want to. Don't expect it to be something long, I just wanted to show her when she's _really _serious. Until then, Keep reading!**


	24. Not From the Neighbourhood

**A/N: ****Round Two! Let's see if we can get to that old geezer this time.**

* * *

The next hall they entered was a wide corridor, with no paintings at all. The whole hallway was lit by a weak blue glow that emanated from the walls. The mighty walls and floor was constructed using apparently granite, and thanks to some weird moisture that came from somewhere, they had this beautiful color and glowed just gorgeously in the light. There were hardly anyone there in the room.

"I'm not even going to ask if he's in here." Asuna said flat toned. "I just know there's someone else here."

"How do you know that?" Takane asked.

"If I know things correctly, the big bad doesn't show himself right after his first henchman has been shown and defeated, he just always has another henchman waiting for you. Aristodemus-san wants to see us all in proper action, and not all of us fought hard against Rachel-chan."

_Everybody looked at her like she was crazy._

"Plus, I heard the sound of cloth over there, further ahead of us." Asuna said, and they heard a gasp over by a door that was illuminated on the other side. It didn't take long before the steps of high heels came to their ears and they readied themselves for this opponent.

Precia Testarossa wasn't wearing any light coloured clothing this time, nor did she have a gentle smile on her face, from what they've seen of her previously. No, this time she was the embodiment of the Lady of War. A black powerful aura giving outfit, which at first glance seemed more that of a seductress than a fighter was her main style of dressing. But at a closer glance, she was also armed with magic jewellery and decorated bracers and bronze greaves to fit her slim legs. She also wore black high heels. Her top side was also decorated with some sort of old shoulder guard, or pauldron. And as a weapon, she held a perfectly made Nine-piece metal whip, a deadly Chinese weapon which had a blunt end on one end of it, and a sharp arrowhead on the other. It was made of nine metal rods including the ends, connected by short chains, allowing flexibility and capability of range adjustment. Her own hair, which was always neatly combed to the back of her head, now hung freely around, letting some of it cover one of her eyes.

"Precia-san..." Setsuna, being supported by Konoka gasped as the elder sorceress just glared at them. "I should have known."

"Surprised?" Precia asked them. "Having seen me before, you should have guessed it after Rachel-san."

"No... it isn't surprising that you would help Aristodemus-san." Setsuna said.

"But even after learning that he's the one who planned the assault on Negi's home town?" Asuna said somewhat shocked. "If I didn't know better, you're doing this just out of blind loyalty for him."

"Aristodemus-san took me out of the darkness called broken love. He helped me get over my grief. He got me employment where I could actually fit in. Frankly speaking, he gave me a second chance." Precia responded to the redhead.

"And the fact that you slept with him is not enough?" Haruna demanded to know of the elder woman.

"That was due to happy circumstances, only." Precia retorted. "We are not in a serious relationship."

"_We need to be careful with this one." _Negi's voice was heard in everyone's head. _"When opponents come alone, they tend to be quite powerful on their own."_

"_Negi, I can easily deflect any spells that she can use." _Asuna responded over on the common telepathic com-link that they had to spread over the class. Recently developed. "Okay, Precia-san, I was wrong about you two, but honestly, you're alone against 30 people here. How do you intend to beat all of us?"

A pair of heavy footsteps of something _big_ slammed down behind them, enough for them to halt their moment of glory feeling.

"I withdraw my statement." Asuna said, trying to maintain her posture. "Can someone try and have a look at what it was behind us? I can't move."

"Is it due to having to watch Precia-san, or because you're too scared to move?" Setsuna asked.

"Both, I guess."

"I'll take a look." Haruna said and turned around. From what those in front of her could see of her, the mangaka went very pale at the sight. "Heh. Big."

"Is it a big robot?" Asuna asked out of curiosity. Precia apparently couldn't stop smiling at the sight.

"No."

"Phew." A lot of girls let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.

"It looks more like a suit."

Now, that was not comfortable to know. "I forget. What's worse: A robot or a suit?"

"It depends on the pilot, really." Chachamaru answered this time.

"Would it hurt you to have a look?" Fate asked this time and turned around to take a look himself. "Oh."

Now everyone decided to take a look. The suit was at least ten foot tall and easily seven foot wide, the massive shoulder pads was at the head's level. They simply must be about six inches thick. The arm was large to crush a watermelon in its hand, and that was the small one, its right arm. The left on the other hand, was large enough to hold a coconut in the fashion one would hold an egg. It's legs were wide to match tree trunks, and the head itself looked like a heavily armored Darth Vader ready for a heavy barrage, except it was colored white. As for the rest of the suit, the color was the simple must for the Spartans Hounds: Bronze colored, as well as a few white places, namely the left knee and a spot on the right leg. Finally, on the right shoulder pad, was a crimson red Lambda, whilst there was certainly a wolf's head on the left shoulder pad.

"This is _really_ going to hurt." Mana said, a sweat-drop distinctly shown running down her temple.

The great suit made the first move, raising its massive fist into the air in order to strike hard. The closest one to block it properly, was Kaede, using her giant shuriken to block the fist. The attack was blocked, but the ninja failed horribly to block the remarkable fast kick that slammed her away sideways into a wall. Akira was next, trying to avoid the left fist, however, the pilot inside was bright and fast enough to grab her with the right hand and chuck the swimmer over the suit's head. When it turned to Chisame, the hacker held up the badge, practically screaming at the thing that she was not a target. Lucky girl.

Chachamaru tried next. The robot was by this time one of the most potent fighters in the team, and also being heavily boosted by her contract with Negi. Her sword arms were not to be trifled with at all. However this time, the armor was simply too thick for any of her weapons to have any visible effect. Good thing for Chacha that she was quick enough to avoid being hit. Ku Fei didn't go for the giant herself, she went instead for Precia. The martial artist charged against the sorceress, and closed the distance with a shundou.

Apparently, Precia was prepared for such things. And, she could also fly, apparently. And unfortunately for Ku Fei, the martial artist was not immune to magic. The bolt that Precia fired was of unknown style, and its purpose could not be identified immediately at the time. Ku Fei was fast enough to dodge the actual bolt, but then it exploded where it had made impact. The martial artist could not dodge that.

Feeling rather troubled by whom to go for first, seeing Yuuna being picked by the suit, made Asuna go for the pilot. Her great sword might be enough to make some serious damage to the suit, allowing them enough time to make an effective blow against the suit, leaving Precia alone. Meanwhile, Fate and Negi engaged the sorceress together, going for a barrage at first, since if she had been good friends with Aristodemus, then she would rather be dangerous at melee herself. How come everyone associated with the SH were good with martial arts?

* * *

"It's a way of life here in Arcadia." Aristodemus, behind the next door, says to someone who asked the question. Strange coincidence, don't you think?

* * *

Asuna roared as the Hama no Tsurugi, her sword, connected at full speed with the left arm of the suit. It was enough to make a dent and to have the pilot release the basketball player. However, this led of course that the redhead princess was a dangerous opponent to the pilot and needed to be defeated as fast as possible. The great machine was quite fast, as it tried to grab the redhead with its right arm, which Asuna dodged, narrowly. As Kotarou tried to kick it, note: tried, he was batted away like a fly. But the window was enough for Asuna to try another attack with her sword. But the pilot inside was prepared, and the redhead found her attack blocked by the left arm. Then the right hand got hold on her chest area. "Geh-"

Yes, Asuna has been thrown before. Just, never at a speed of 60 m/h. And mind you, it is fast for the one traveling at that speed. She impacted hard with Fate from behind, sending the two of them flying forward, beneath the flying sorceress. That drew Negi's attention to the great machine, which was having little trouble fending off the girls who were stupid to stand against it. As it was picking up Mei, the little pyromancer in their group, Negi just had to intervene and moving over there was probably the best move.

His sudden strike was more than enough to send the machine flying back, therefore releasing Mei, and making her land in Negi's arms. The pyromancer felt more than a little warm at that. "Are you alright, Mei-san?"

"Um... yes, Negi-sensei." Mei responded with quite a well-hidden blush.

The pilot had so much control over the suit that he (or is it she?) was good enough to get the suit back on its two feet. Now it recognized Negi as dangerous. And as Negi prepared his silver sword, the great machine adjusted its stance and hardened the fists. First came the left fist down on Negi, who kicked it aside, then the right one, that the sword deflected. Then somehow, both fists came down on him. Fortunately, Negi was able to block both of them and divert them to his left. Then its left came swiftly on his head, making him go backwards and cough up blood. Coming to his aid as Negi rinsed his mouth with his tongue and then spit out what was left in the mouth, were Mana, Chacha and Theo. The gunner had found herself rather useless against the armor, but seeing it fight, she claimed to have found a weak spot. The Robot was simply after a rematch plus to help Negi. And Theo, well, she needed her moment where she was very good.

Going up first, were Negi and Chacha, whilst Fate was off busy holding off Precia. The two of them hit the machine hard on the front, whilst Mana snuck up behind them in order to use either of them as leverage to jump up on the thing. Once she was there, she pumped a shotgun, having the blunt end on her hip whilst pumping the firearm with her right arm. Then she took hold of the helmet's lower part and lifted it as much as she could, whilst holding the barrel to the gap in between. "Open wide."

Then she fired. The shock was enough for the pilots visor to go all baloney and he (she?) couldn't see anything, whilst Theo came in for the kill of the big machine, using a version of Negi's 'Oukahouken' spell. She could only hold five arrows though. But that was enough for the big armor to fail its maintain over the legs, and it fell down hard.

For a moment, they had something of a relieving moment, before Fate came crashing literally down amidst them, leaving a small crater. "She's S+, at minimum." He said, but since he was lying face down, it sounded a bit mumbled.

"That's not good." Theo said, seeing as their more potent mage between the two was defeated. It didn't take long before a barrage of heavy spells from a seemingly unknown type of magic style came upon them. Precia didn't seem quite happy at all. And things got prettier with the suit getting back up again. "Okay, that's not good."

"_Master!" _A voice cried inside Negi's head, catching him off-guard. Surprised at this female voice that addressed him as master, he looked around for the source. _"Why don't you use me, Master?"_ The voice cried again.

"Who?" Negi asked out loud.

"_I'm in your pocket! Use me, Master!" _The voice cried, and Negi looked in his pocket to find the dragon figurine made of pearl. _"Give me a name, and I will fight for you, Master."_

"A name..." Negi pondered quickly as the big machine was preparing another assault on them. At the same time, Precia was swinging her whip in order to strike against those who were fighting. _Hold on. When I first summoned the dragon, she had silver scales. So if I use a name based on that, then... _Just as the suit was planning on hitting Mana real hard, Negi came up on a name. "Come out, Argenta-san!"

Next thing they knew, a great silver dragon was upon the suit, biting the right arm and forcing its whole body onto the suit, making it go backwards and fall over eventually. Precia was stunned at the sudden appearance of the dragon and that was enough for Asuna to come up from behind her and hit her hard on the head, therefore rendering the sorceress unconscious. The silver dragon which was actually the size of a horse, still kept going on the great machine, which had for the first time actual trouble. Although the beast couldn't penetrate the thick armor, the sheer force behind her attacks was enough the machine back.

Whats more, the newly named Argenta was bit too brutal, as she just hammered on the big machine, eventually tearing up a hole in the armor, right in the chest, where the pilot sat. But the beast went even further, as she laid her head down in order to breath fire. That's when Negi hit her on the head. _"Master?"_

"No. I'm not going to stand by while you roast the pilot alive." Negi scolded the dragon. Since the contract between master and beast was absolute, Argenta could only hang her head in shame. But at least she had done the job of defeating the suit. "Now let's see who's inside." Negi moved up to the helmet, and tried to remove it, only for some clicks and whirrs going on inside to open up the chest.

Inside, much to everyone's surprise, was a little girl, no more than eight years old. She had long blonde hair, as bright as the sun, which hung freely. She wore a small outfit in order to pilot the big machine, apparently and around her neck, hung a small triangular black necklace with a great emerald in the center. Most of all intriguing, she had ruby red eyes, which could draw you in their own beauty. Over all, she was a very cute girl. Oh, and she had a faint blush on her face.

"Um... Are you alright?" Negi asked her, since he was the closest to her and the little girl nodded in response. Stretching out a hand to help her out of the broken thing, Negi couldn't help but feel that another one had been suddenly attracted to him. (I couldn't resist that one)

"So now you go for the young ones, Negi?" Asuna was immediately on to him, holding a fake smile at him, but the flames around her killed off the nice intent.

"Let's add her to the harem already, shall we?" Someone called out.

"Wait, you guys are wrong!" Negi tried to stop the girls going crazy. "I don't have those intentions!"

"Now let's see. First Nodoka gets kidnapped, so you move on to Koyomi-chan back home, then you score a homerun with Theo-sama, and now you go for a loli." Haruna said, counting her fingers as she said those things. "I think we need to neuter him just to be safe."

"Idiot! What good will that do!?" Someone scolded the mangaka.

"Are they always like this?" Fate had to know from Negi himself.

"Most of the time, but about 95% of the time, they really don't mean it." Negi responded. "Let's move on to the next room, shall we, everyone? I think Aristodemus-san has been waiting long enough."

"_Wait." _Argenta got the young master's attention, making him turn to her. _"I have not been idle in listening in. If this Aristodemus-san is as good as that Godel man said, then you need more than just willpower to overcome him."_

"What do you mean by that?" Negi had to know.

"_My brothers and sisters that are with us even now can be summoned as well. All you need to do is to give them names and they will come out."_

Negi spoke for the silver dragon and the girls agreed on that. "Uh, um..." A new voice came from their midst and they found that the little girl had spoken up. "I... also want to help." She said with a faint blush on her cheeks.

_Crap, even her voice is cute!_ Negi thought to himself. _How can I say no to that tone _and_ voice now that I've heard it!? _"Um, you can come along, but how are you able to help us? Your suit is broken and-"

The little girl held up her necklace in response to that question, and a magic circle activated underneath. It was not one that any of them recognized. "Lochaber, set up!"

"_**Get reddy!**_" The necklace spoke in flawless English, but with a heavy Scottish accent.

What happened next could be best described as something out of a magical girl show. First, her clothes disappeared, leaving her stark naked. Then new clothes materialized upon her. When it was finished, the little girl wore a neat outfit which consisted of a jacket that went down to the start of her feet. Underneath the jacket, she wore a small metal harness along with some neat linen handiwork. In addition, she also had tight pants that graced her legs, therefore rendering them unable to be grabbed at. The little boots that came with them were much similar to what Negi tend to wear in school. Finally, her hair was set in a bun, with decorative chopsticks with small Chinese markings to form some sort of sentence together. When she was done, she made a salute to them. "Alicia Testarossa and Lochaber, ready to go."

"_**Aye.**"_The apparent Axe, which did resemble an actual Lochaber axe, said with a glow from it's rectangular eye socket that could be found in between the shaft and the blade. _"**We be reddy to hit 'em 'ard, ya wee sodden pansies.**" _That sentence didn't really sound nice, particularly with that last bit.

"That axe can... talk?" Asuna asked the little girl.

"_**I sure can, ya wee princess. Ma Leigfch and I are more than reddy ta hurt some southern grate sodden basterd.**" _The axe named Lochaber said.

"Wait, Liegfch?" Kotarou said utterly confused at the accent. "What did you say, Lick?"

"_**I said Liegfch.**" _Lochaber said, trying to be more clear, but the accent was too heavy, as h-... it, could see the confused expressions on everyone. _"**Er, lat's ignore dat fer now and keep moving, eh?**"_

Putting Alicia's mother to a more relaxed position to rest in, they got the key from Alicia and opened the door to the third and hopefully final room where the Spartan was waiting for them.

* * *

-In case you're wondering, yes: It is a Tactical Dreadnought Armor, popularly known as Terminator Armor from Warhammer 40k that Alicia was driving. How and Why? Connections and _because I can._

-Lochaber is a brand new Device that I made recently as I wrote this chapter. I was adamant that Alicia is to be made part of the team. Plus, what Mr. Stromgard in chapter 20 reported to Aristodemus and Precia was actually that Alicia had been resurrected. I will post the rest of the information on Lochaber on the animesuki forums once I'm able to reach the place.

A/N: **And apparently, we couldn't reach him this time. Sorry about making this a short chapter, but hey, it's well done at least. Now this is your last chance to give me your hypothesis on the old man. Until then, have fun!**


	25. Last of the 300

**A/N: No more delays, this is where we meet Aristodemus, understand? No more delays!**

_**

* * *

**_

Cerberus Infinite Prison Complex, 19 years ago...

"I got this. You can leave." Aristodemus instructed the guard stationed at the level and was holding a tray of food.

"I'm only doing what I'm told to do." The guard responded to the shorter man in front of him.

"I can handle myself." Aristodemus said, before looting his pocket to pick something out. "Here, try this." He handed a pack of cigarettes to the guard, putting it in the guard's hand. "It's from the Old World, you put one in your mouth and set the tip of it on fire. Quite stimulating. Just give me ten minutes, that's all."

It took a couple of minutes for the guard to think things over. Then again, goods from the Old World were hard to come by. "You have fifteen. After that, I must send you out."

"Thank you." Aristodemus took the tray and walked over to the celldoor and opened it. Inside, sat his former student, friend and master: Arika Anarichia Ethiofushia of Ostia, the 'Queen of Calamity' as she was called, all battered and bereft of her pride. "Arika?"

The prisoner didn't at first react, but hearing a different voice than those she's used to, made her tilt her head to the direction where it came from. She didn't seem surprised at his appearance, but she was curious as to why he was here. "Aris?"

"I managed to get fifteen minutes with you." The Spartan said, putting down the tray of food next to Arika. "I've been meaning to talk to you for over a year."

For once, Arika would have to eat. From what she has learned from this teacher of hers, it is that one should never have doubts about eating. "What are you doing here, Aris? I didn't know that you cared about politics anymore."

"I still do." Aris responded to her. "Just... not things that can alter the world greatly." Whilst Arika was having some bread, he continued. "The Senate looked into me. They claimed they had reason and the right to try and put me in court because of my connection to you."

"But then again, my good teacher, you are a genius in hiding your true intentions, as always." Arika responded to the Spartan's confession, and he bowed in return, from his sitting position.

"I merely do what I do best in politics." Aris said in response. "But that's not what I came for." Arika tilted her head in response, she has heard this before. "You do know that I really don't approve of this way."

"How else are we to achieve peace?" Arika said almost bored. "If my death means that the world will be saved from Cosmo Entelecheia, then I have no qualm."

"I have a qualm." Aristodemus said, getting less happy the longer this progressed. "I found out that you do not have any connection with those guys. I got the proof for it. And no-"

_"Rector."_ Arika interrupted him, calling him Teacher in Latin. "I'm responsible. I killed my father, I destroyed my homecountry, I enforced millions of refugees on other countries, and I passed the Death Collar Act. People want to see me dead."

"People forget that you were the one who saved the world, Arika." Aris retorted. "And from what I've seen, it's only the Senate who wants you dead. They're just lying to you and the public."

"What is the point for trying to set me free, Aris?" Arika said. "I'm a traitor. Even Theodora won't talk with me."

"Theo-chan _does _want to talk to you. The Senate is cancelling every attempt to talk with you." Aris reported to her. "I had to sneak in here and bribe the guard."

"There is no other w-" Arika didn't end the sentence because the Spartan flicked her on the nose.

"There is always a way." Aris said. "You only did what you had to do so we could continue living here. You remembered what I taught you when you were a child: For the sake of greater good, one must take drastic measures."

"Even killing your own father?"

"I never liked him anyway. But he did a good job, so that's why I let him go."

There was an awkward silence between as Aris tried to change the subject. "Asuna is safe." That brought some light into Arika's eyes. "That's the one thing I'm not letting those Romans get away with."

A few twitches occurred, as Arika tried her best to smile, despite everything that has happened to her. At least her little sister was safe. That's all she needed to know.

"I wasn't informed that you had called for a meeting with her, Strategou." A new voice cut them off. It was Senator Frollo, one of those who spearheaded the occupation of Ostia. "You do know that any meeting with her must be first confirmed by us."

"I also know that any meeting that is attempted to talk with her is cancelled by you guys, Senator." Aris retorted, rising up from his sitting position. "Four times, I have attempted at this, and every time, I've been denied because of 'Illness reasons'. So I decided to break a few rules this time."

"You do know that you can be arrested for such things, Strategou." Frollo said in his own monotone that just screamed evil.

"You can certainly most try, Frollock." Aris retorted with his own grin. "But you should at least learn to look how deep the chasm is before you jump across, eh? You can't arrest me. Not without causing more fractures in the already damaged popularity with the people you have, and I'm sure you would find the Emperor on your doorstep since we are very good friends, not to mention I helped war-orphans whereas you only cared about winning."

Frollo looked rather mad at the Spartan, but he didn't say anything at first to counter what the old man had said. "It has gone fifteen minutes. Your time is up."

Aris looked at his watch to check. "Oh, you're right. I'll guess I'll be leaving, then." And as he was leaving the cell, he dragged Senator Frollo along. "I think we should leave the Queen alone, so that she may wade in her own shame."

Once the cell door was closed, Frollo snapped at the Spartan. "How dare you! I'm the one in charge here, and you know it!"

"And how many times do I have to put you upstart Senators in your place?" Aris retorted at Frollo. "You have no authority over me."

"I beg to differ. Every nation in the Confederacy has agreed to have the Senate in charge. You are no different."

"We'll see about that, since I have no memory of making such an agreement. And also, I do advice you guys to, not hasten the death of the Queen. Just some small advice, for your own health."

"And why on Earth would we hasten her death?"

"Because I can tell." Aris responded and held up a small rectangular item. "Anything happen to her before the execution, and mark my words, you will not find it pleasant when I come knocking." With that, Aris vanished from Frollo's sight, just like fog that faded in the morning light. Frollo thought it would be best to inform the Pro-konsul about this.

**_Present Day, Arcadia..._**

The third room was unlit at first when they all entered it. There were no lights on. It looked empty, but they could feel more than one gaze on them. They knew that Aristodemus was in this room, as they could at least see that the room was vast. No doubt another one with parts of his collection.

"Took you long enough, Boya." Eva's voice was heard first, as her figure was illuminated by light from underneath the large crystal ball she was sitting on. And she has been drinking apparently. "Good job defeating both Rachel and Precia, by the way."

"Eva-chan." Asuna said, not surprised at the vampire's presence in the room. "I'm going to assume that the old geezer is here as well."

"Which one?" Eva responded sarcastically. "There are a few in here."

"_Oh, how you call me old geezer again, Asuna." _Aristodemus' voice was heard echoing through the darkness. _"But I do wonder what the tone has to do with that."_

"I think you know perfectly well why I call you old geezer with this tone." Asuna retorted, holding her sword up in case an attack would occur, and many of the girls followed suit. "Six years ago, know that time?"

"_It's seven years now. The attack happened in winter, and winter has already passed. I know what you're talking about."_

"Then you should know all about it, since you were probably the one who planned the assault." Negi accused directly, getting the Shinso's attention on that one.

"_That's what Kurt told you?"_ The Spartan truly sounded surprised at that. _"I knew that he confronted you, but tell you something like that? I would have his hide for that."_

Some more light came up not far to Eva's left and Jack Rakan stepped forward. The big golem had an apparent smile on his face. What's more, he had his artifact out in case there would be a fight. "Kiddo, that's another fault with you. You let vengeance get in your way when all the answers that you've been looking for, was in the hands of one who would give them to you freely."

"From one who supplied Cosmo Entelecheia with troops during the war?"

"_Objection!"_ Aristodemus cut them off there. _"I can tell the truth on that really: They came to me, asking for men. When I asked them why, they said that they would stop the war. Technically speaking, they were telling the truth, so I got volunteers for them. It was only after the war that I found out the truth."_

"Is that right?" Chisame asked the Spartan, still out of view.

"_You guys have the diary, don't you? Use that on me if you want the truth."_

Reminded of Nodoka's artifact, Negi summoned it forth through his own and had a look into it. And there he saw the truth before his eyes. Not only was the notion of the troop delivery mentioned, but also the whole story of the attack, which spanned over more than two pages. As he flipped the pages, some of them were trying to get a glimpse of what was written in the book.

Finally, Negi closed the book, with a stern face. "You weren't there. In fact, you didn't hear of it until the day afterwards."

_"Found out about my part of the Attack incident, did we?" _Aris asked somewhat happily. _"I do admit however, that I took part in the rescue mission. I saw you and Nekane from a distance at first." _Now a new light came and revealed Aristodemus.

And boy, was he prepared. Unlike most people who had some light armor and stood prepared waiting for action, he was more heavily armored and lazy at the same time. He was sitting on a throne forged out of Iron, whilst wearing a massive plate armor that had two pads on each side, the upper covering his shoulders, and the lower his arm. The whole armor covered his body near completely, save his head, which was unshielded at first glance. From what they could see, he was also wearing a cloak, and they could tell by the piece of cloth that came from underneath his shoulder pads before ending up linked together in a brooch right under his chin In addition, he had a large round shield made of steel, with the Lambda symbol on it, hanging close to his left arm, whilst he had his trusted sword that they saw when they first met him in his right hand. In contrast to swords having a light or grey appearance, this blade was pitch black. It had a strong leaf inspiration, as the blade was small at the hilt and shrinking, whilst coming closer to the other end it grew thicker and thicker, before ending up like a tip of a spear on the end. As to how he was sitting, his left armored hand held up his resting head, whilst he was almost sloppily holding his sword in the right hand, as if it would fall out anytime. "So I guess I overdressed for nothing then." He said rather calmly.

"I take it that you were expecting a heavy fight on your hands?" Fate had to ask the Spartan.

"I admit that I always knew that Negi-kun and I would come to blows some day. Personally, I'd prefer it be when he's much older and experienced." Aristodemus confessed before them. "But since the fight has been cancelled for now, I do know however that you've come here for something else."

Asuna stepped forward and looked at the Spartan in the eyes. For her, it had felt like an eternity since she last saw those old wizened brown eyes. From what she could remember of him, she had watched him train other fighters and magi in combat and spells, shown her sister tactics back at the palace in Ostia, talked with her father about politics from a distance. She never saw him again after Arika and Nagi fled to the Old World, but now, she was ready to meet this part of her past. "From what I can remember, you are well over 2500 years old, Aristodemus-san. And that you're from the Old World."

"It's two thousand, five hundred and thirty-_three_." Aristodemus answered, holding up three fingers to bring home the point. "I'm turning thirty-four on 7/6. And I do have to confess, you children are the only people who know my real age outside of this group of arch-magi."

"Well then, Aris-san." Yue interloped. "If I might speak as to who you once were?"

Aris granted her permission by a simple hand gesture. "I heard the riddle from Asuna, and that peaked my curiousity. And in here, the Museum of Life, I did meet Socrates and Herodotus themselves, and we talked together in the library here. You are unlike most of your original kind, keeping records of history and surrounding yourself with artifacts of your time here on both worlds." Yue explained.

"Go on."

"In the history records, I found only two Aristodemus." Yue continued. "The first was a tyrant, a descendant of Herakles himself, who got struck by lightning, as well as lead the final attack on Mycenae. At first, I was dubious, because I know for one that the Medeans that you mentioned are originally Persians, led by Xerxes I of Persia, grandson of Cyrus the Great. That's where the other one comes in. The other Aristodemus took part in the battle of Thermopylae itself, but did not take part on the final day."

"Every historian who read about that battle knows that the king, Leonidas, ordered away as many men as he could in order to make a final stand against the Persians whilst the rest of Greece mobilized for an effective defence." Fate interrupted her.

"But most don't really know he ordered away someone who had an eye infection as well. As much as he was one originally to stay, he could not fight blind. So he was sent back to his hometown."

"And that, would be me." Aristodemus confessed. "I must admit, that I was one of Leonidas' personal knights, part of his bodyguard of 300." He rose up from his throne to pace left and right in front of them. "Unfortunately, I was not the only one with an eye infection that day. A fellow battle brother named Eurytus, who was also ordered back to Sparta itself, disregarded his king's orders and charged literally blindly into the Persian lines. I myself returned home."

"But then, you were not accepted for your sickness because of Eurytus." Yue said, holding up her own book whilst in armor.

"True." Aris continued his story. "I was brandished a trembler, a coward to put it more precise. Having only a patchwork cloak to wear aside from my old battered armor, I was not to speak or be with anyone. Everyone shunned me and believed that my cowardice was contagious. Thanks to that, unless I redeemed myself in battle and proved that I was not a trembler, my whole bloodline would die out. My sons would not find any place in the army, my daughters unable to marry. Can you imagine what that feels like? To be without a rank in a society where rank was everything?"

"...I guess not." Kotarou suddenly spoke up. "I would feel terrible if I had to endure something like that."

"And I had to endure it for a full year. At the battle of Platea, I found my chance to prove that I was not a coward." Aristodemus said, and almost in an instant, the whole chamber was swept off into a hologrammatic battlefield, more precisely, the battle of Platea. "I stood in the Spartan lines, but since I had to prove myself, and my anger had been boiling for a year, I broke rank. I alone charged alongside our friends, the Tegeans, against the Persians. And a little tip: Never go berserk in battle, unless you're heavily armored and got the best quality gear. I had the lowest quality which was reserved for slaves. And that was when I did die."

In the hologrammatic battle, they did see a much more blood-crazed Aris killing Persians with spear, shield and sword, even his bare hands, before going down shot down by arrows. "Thing is, I didn't die back then. I somehow came back to life. Finding out that I had somehow become immortal, I rose quickly through the Spartan ranks, before her fall. After that, I embarked out into the world, becoming more entangled with magic than most heroes of my time did. And there you have it; My own sad story as to how I became the man I am today: the last of the 300."

A lot of the girls suddenly found themselves having a new respect for the man who were in fact as tall as themselves. This was without a doubt, the most powerful man on both worlds, on a personal level at least.

"Now then, since you know who I am, you're probably wondering, _what_ I am." Aris said, sheathing his sword. "I do admit, there is a discussion for that on the Mahonet. I checked up there once. There were several theories, but some were the most prominent."

"Oh?" Eva said, surprised really. "This should be good. Care to tell us?"

"One stated that I could be, just like Jack or your friend Chachamaru-san, a golem, put together from several corpses and then reanimated by necromancers who wanted to end the Persian Wars by making a supersoldier. I certainly have enough scars and stitches to prove that one at least. But there is one flaw to that one."

"Which is?"

"Golems, don't eat. They do not eat, or drink or sleep. No offence of course to Chachamaru-san. But all my organs are still functioning, and I mean, all of them. A golem doesn't have such things to begin with, since why would something that was made for fighting, have the same needs as a normal human?" Aristodemus said, revealing that he has gained very expressive hands. "Another theory states that I'm just like Eva, a Shinso vampire. That does seem logical. I cannot die, I have resistance to sunlight like a Shinso, and I do gain some more extra power in the moonlight. But the vampire has also a fatal flaw in it."

"And what's that?" Chisame just had to ask. In response, Negi's silver sword suddenly came out of his hand on its own, it seemed, and impaled the Spartan with so much force, that he got stuck on his throne.

"Silver is the one thing that can kill a Shinso permanently, given the right amount of force. The force of that blow for instance, could have killed me, if I was a vampire." Aris said, pulling out the sword and handing it back to Negi, who took it by the hilt, since the blade was still covered in blood. "I'm still breathing, so I cannot be a vampire. Besides, no one would expect a vampire to join forces with Catholic troops determined to wipe them all out, now would you?"

_

* * *

_

Somewhere in the multiverse, among billions of dimensions, a Vampire sneezed whilst holding his gun.

* * *

"Now as I recall, there were two more theories. The third was that I'm a special construct, just like Averruncus." Aristodemus continued. "A predecessor to the actual magi constructs that exists. Those are able to eat, sleep and drink."

"Except, that idea is utterly ridiculous, if I'm right." Asuna said, gaining some points.

"Exactly. If I was a construct like Averruncus, then what is my purpose? They don't make magi constructs without having a special purpose installed in their minds from the start."

"I don't think we should get in to the final theory. That can always be saved for another time." Fate intervened, actually growing bored.

Aristodemus had to chuckle at the white haired mage. "Quite right. And I think I owe you guys an explanation."

An explosion happened suddenly in the roof above the room they were in, and sunlight came in, blinding a few of them. Two figures then came flying into the room attached to ropes, both carrying weapons. Strangely, only one of them landed.

"Don't worry girls, the knights in armor has arrive-" Vito said, before discovering that he was alone between the group of girls plus Negi, Kotaro and Fate, and the Spartan, all looking at him rather surprised. "Andreas? Andreas? Dude!"

"Up here." Andreas said, catching their attention. Apart from wearing some studded leather armor and brandishing his two blades, his rope had gotten stuck on one of the ceiling rails, which had fractured due to the shockwave of the explosion. He was pretty much dangling. "I got stuck."

"What the...?" Aris and a few of the girls said. Rakan looked like laughing, and so did Eva. "You two, made a hole in my roof, and swooped down here, just to get to me. It's a good tactic, but rather suicidal. And from the looks of things, planned by a slop."

Vito took the moment to put his palm over his face. "I knew this was a bad plan."

"Hey, you were the one who came up with this, Vito." Andreas objected, feeling almost insulted.

"Are you calling me an idiot?!" Vito yelled at his buddy.

"I didn't say that. I'm merely stating plain fact." Andreas retorted. "And I might as well add that you could at least have made a better plan."

Vito sat down, grumbling and crossing his limbs while pouting, whilst Andreas was trying to get free.

Eventually, Aris broke the silence caused by the sheer awkwardness. "What's this about, anyway?"

Vito rose up immediately. "I was getting to that part. We got some proof that your plan is to make the Magic World collapse!" At that, several of the girls that were watching, sweatdropped.

"Who told you that?" Aris really wanted to know this one, so that he could beat the crap out of someone.

"It was Senator Godel who told us." Vito said, upon which those who did know Godel, promptly put their palms over their faces. "What? He gave us convincing evidence."

_He revealed top-classified information just to get to me..._ Aris thought to himself whilst the other one managed to cut himself loose and then land on all fours. _He must be getting desperate. Ah well, better take care of this before continuing..._ "Come now, you two... there really is no need for fighting. We could work something out."

"You can try all you want, boss! I won't fall for any of your tricks." Vito said stubbornly as Andreas got up.

"Oh, alright then." Before anyone could react, Vito was shoved backwards with such force that he was thrown back. Fortunately for him, his buddy caught him.

"You know, one good thing about studying is that you get to know how handle your opponents." Andreas said to Vito whom he held in one hand.

"There's a smart lad." Aris said, walking away from his throne. "But frankly, both of you got set up. Godel is the real villain in this case."

"Huh?" Both guys said.

"If you must know, then yes, the Magic World is going to collapse eventually. I don't know when, but there it is. Godel has the idea of saving 67 million people only, all for Arika, the Queen of Calamity. That's one in eightteen individuals. I need to ask, what would you do, knowing that you could only save 67 million people?"

Both guys looked at each other, and Andreas started, after putting Vito down. "You can't just save only 67 million. You need to save as many as you can, regardless of who they are. But if I only had 67 million, then it would as many different kinds of people as possible. Every species has a right to live, so I've been told my whole life."

"Ah, good thinking. Your father has the same idea, Andreas." Aris said. "I believe that would do as an answer." He then turned to Vito. "And what of you, Vito-kun? Let's say you know who is the real culprit in such a disaster. What would you do?"

"I would just go and stop him, no matter what." Was the simple answer of the Hoplite.

"A hero to the end, as always." Aris chuckled. "But since you guys are here, I suppose even the common folk deserves to know the truth." He turned back to his throne and pushed a button. "All you need to do is watch."

A new screen showed up above the throne, allowing the Spartan to step back and have a look as well. This was one of his glory moments.

_**Cerberus Canyon, Day after Execution (prevented)**_

Fighting for 24 hours took its toll, regardless of how good you were. The boy you possess can only go that far. That's how badly it went for Nagi and his group fighting against the Senate. After dispatching roughly 3000 troops, they began to realize that the Confederation had more than just that many soldiers at their command. Even with the extra support of Arika at their side, things were not looking good.

"I simply must congratulate you Ala Rubra for causing such a commotion..." Senator Frollo praised with a false smile. "And what a commotion, having the rest of the Senators retreat back to Megalomesembria. But it ends here. You would have been great heroes to the Congregation after all. Shame it would come to this."

"Drop dead, you." Nagi scoffed back at him. "I never liked you guys anyway, it just happened that we worked together."

"Ah, well." Frollo snapped his fingers to tell his troops to kill them all. "I'm sure the news that you tried to assassinate me at the execution site will make many people happy..." He said as his heavy infantry charged in at the group of Heroes.

"Come on, then, you guys." Nagi smiled as the enemies closed in on them. Only, they didn't get the whole way. All around them, their spears and lances was suddenly cut in half, making them useless. The sudden destruction of their weapons made everybody pause. "What the..."

Then, explosions. Several explosions occurred everywhere around Ala Rubra, in the infantry's ranks. Some were powerful enough to send the troops flying. The third odd thing that happened was some of the soldiers getting their armor smashed in by fists and feet, all in a matter of seconds. "What's going on?!" Frollo demanded to know.

Someone landed in front of Ala Rubra, and it was someone they never expected to ever show up. "Rachel-chan?!" Nagi had to ask just to make sure.

Rachel was dressed in a tight black leather suit this time, brandishing her lethal falx weapon and having a skull as a helmet. She also had several belt to hold flasks and catalysts, some of them were empty. "Sorry for taking so long, you guys. Getting everybody took some time." She apologized to them.

"What are you doing here?" Nagi suddenly went like a jerk again. "We got this under control. Go back to Granicus, Rachel, we don't need you."

"Oh." Rachel scoffed at him. "So you're going to say no to reinforcements, now? Oh, I see how you got this in control: About to lose it."

"But what are you doing here, Rachel?" This time, Arika asked the falx user. The answer came in the shape of ten other individuals landing all around them. A tigerman, a human surrounded by four identical women and five different looking Hellas people, two men and three women. "The Epilektoi..." she whispered to herself as they faced the heavy infantry, seemingly smiling and ready for a fight.

"What the hell?!" Frollo screamed at the new arrivals. "What do you think you're doing here?"'

"Just following orders here, Senator." Rachel responded to him. "We picked up a call for back up, and here we are."

"Then you should be aiding our side. Not those rebels. And who was it that sent you?" Frollo demanded to know.

A new arrival came in fast and slammed into the ground between the heroes of the war, and the minions of the Senate. The impact caused smoke to arise, making several people cough to get out the dirt. When the smoke cleared, Aristodemus was standing there, in a great coat, studded leather underneath, with a Viking battle axe on his back, and a twenty five inches long wooden sword with ten small, obsidian shards imbedded into the wood, hanging on his right wrist. Most people would recognize it as a _Macuahuitl_, a weapon used by Aztecs and Maya warriors before their downfall. In addition, he was carrying Asuna on his right shoulder. Wearing light and thin fabric clothing, she also wore a crown that was leaf inspired and had a Celtic outlook to it.

"Ah, Strategou!" Frollo felt the wind of victory approaching. "Good to see that you've arrived. And I see that you've brought Princess Asuna with you as well. Now would you be so kind to bring her here to me?"

"Uhh...." Aristodemus looked at him, then at Asuna, who looked back at him, then he looked at Arika and Nagi before turning back to Frollo. "...No."

"What?" The wind of victory didn't seem to blow in Frollo's direction...

"I said no." Aristodemus responded. "I got my own choices to make. I'm not part of your little empire, Senator. I'm a free man, I'm head of Arcadia. Which I may point out in fact, is a neutral state just like Ariadne. We're not Confederation."

"How dare you?" Frollo said angrily at him. "I've put up with your denials and trumped up humor for too long, and my patience is wearing thin. Bring her to me."

"Uh-uh-uh." Aris waved a finger at him. "You asked first, and I said no. It's a natural response, really. It was not an order."

"It is, now!" Frollo shouted.

"Shouting won't get us any-" Aris felt Asuna knock on his head, and he looked at her. She was gesturing for him to put her down. Getting her idea, he obliged. Asuna went quietly througth the infantry ranks, Aris just watching whilst Ala Rubra pleaded quietly that she'd stop and turn back, but she didn't. Asuna went calmly up to Senator Frollo and stood right in front of him.

"Ah, hello there, princess. Care to come with me?" Frollo asked the little redhead nicely and held out his hand to her. Asuna didn't say anything, but moved her own hand to him. And as she took his hand, Ala Rubra and Arika's hearts sank. But then, without warning and so suddenly, Asuna jumped up and gave a knee strike right in Frollo's face.

_The real life Asuna watching the movie suddenly went O_O_.

The little redhead jumped away from the senator, and started jumping onto soldiers' helmets, giving good space in between, before jumping into the Spartan's hand, who flung her towards Nagi, who caught her. Everybody else applauded the little girl's astounding little stunt. Save Frollo and his soldiers. "Why you little...!"

"There. See? Even Princess Asuna doesn't want to be with you." Aristodemus rose to her defense. "Now away with you, and I'll handle this."

"No!" Frollo shouted at him. "These people are rebels and traitors, and you will be the same if you stand alongside them."

"Since when was I a traitor?" Aristodemus retorted with reason. "How can I be a traitor when I was never part of the Confederation?" That made some of the soldiers look at each other. "Go on, tell me that. How are we, who were never allied with you guys to begin, or were part of the Confederation, betray you guys?"

"Traitors or not," Frollo said eventually. "You are outnumbered by far. I have-"

"Yes, I checked already from the air." Aristodemus said. "You have 5000 soldiers at A level at least, thirty-five Demon God soldiers surrounding this area, and two fleets of warships on both east and west, able to fire on this area from their current position. Not a bad number, really." Frollo chuckled to himself in pride. There was no way that even the Strategou could survive this one. Ah, with him out of the way, it would be an easy cake gaining control of Arcadia too, and to get the big prize, princess Asuna, as their personal attendant. "This oughta be a good exercise for me, don't you think, guys?" Aristodemus asked his men, who agreed in agreement, taking both Ala Rubra and Frollo in surprise. "Come on, boys. All together or one at a time, it's all the same to me."

"Whoa, whoa, old man." Nagi said, still holding Asuna in his arms. "You intend to take them alone? That's crazy!"

"And? You've taken on such numbers before and still come out the winner, Nagi-kun. But leave this in the hands of someone who knows his stuff." Aris retorted at the Thousand Master. The heavy infantry were reluctant to attack him, since if he was taking them on alone, then he was very, very, very, good. "Not coming?" Aris asked them in general. "Alright then. You first." The Spartan suddenly appeared right behind the soldier who stood closest to where he originally was. A perfect shundou, from a fighter's perspective.

What happened next was generally described later on as major ass-kicking. Aristodemus bashed away the heavy infantry of Megalomesembria without effort, holding a calm, and emotionless pokerface on his appearance, whilst spinning at least two soldiers around him to hit others. And what's more, he seemed to be everywhere. All around Ala Rubra, and the named 'Epilektoi', soldiers were flying about, their armor buckled and badly damaged. The Spartan was just all around them.

"Whoa." Gateau said, breathtaken.

"I could do that." Rakan said, gaining some stares from Rachel and her squad. "What? I can."

"Sure you can." Rachel responded to the giant. "But I find your own creativity somewhat...lacking."

"And what do you mean by that?" Rakan said. At that moment, they all saw a large spinning form bashing away the infantry. When he stopped spinning, Aris seemingly punched one soldier who had charged at him from behind, without even bothering to turn around. "...Oh." The soldier fell backwards, unconscious.

"I see that good old Aris hasn't been on the lazy side." Albiero said, seeing his old friend in action.

"Really?" Nagi said, quite disturbed at the sight.

"But honestly, I can't tell what is most frightening right now: That he has always been able to do this sort of thing, or that he's doing it without breaking sweating."

That bit was true. Aris wasn't sweating, nor was he getting serious at this. He maintained his stern pokerface whilst seeming just knocking them away without effort. Shortly, one of the demon soldiers came forward and managed to get a good smack on the Spartan. Or so they thought. Next thing they was that the demon's head had been cut off. Other demon gods came in as well, only to be chopped to pieces as well by Aristodemus as he flew past them.

_He can fly...? _Chisame thought to herself, seeing the carnage happening on the screen. _Right, that's it. Every freak can defy the laws of gravity._

In the movie, it didn't take long before some of the soldiers began running away, carrying their comrades on their backs. The god soldiers did not run away, but they were cut and shot down by Aris' arrows that hit right on their eyes. That's when the bombardment of arrows started. Now the Spartan was shooting down enemies that came at him. The other soldiers on the ground saw their chance to attack the group of people that the Strategou was guarding.

But they did fail at something: There were eleven more fighters and combat magi there alongside the Ala Rubra defending the Queen of Calamity, and so they were thoroughly thwarted. Around that time, Aristodemus landed some distance before them.

"Alright." He said, walking towards them, with little trouble stepping over some unconscious soldiers. "Now that that's finished, we can-"

_**Bang!**_ That sound surprised everyone. Rachel and the Epilektoi stood still with wide eyes. Arika saw in shock whilst Nagi covered Asuna's eyes. Aristodemus felt blood trickle down his throat, and he took his hand to feel where the bullet had hit him. It was right in the throat. Before they could react, Aristodemus fell down to the ground, lying there and not moving at all. To those who didn't know, he looked like he was dead.

"Finally got the bastard." Frollo said, holding a handgun in his right hand, and the barrel was smoking. "Don't bother." He pointed his gun to the others, who tried to attack. "His actions has doomed your little island." Several other soldiers, lightly armored in comparison to the heavy infantry came as well, carrying sub-machine guns. "I would rather not have princess Asuna being caught in this event, if you get my point."

Arika swallowed hard as she had to tell Asuna what to do. "Asuna, go over to him." The tone at which the former Queen said those words, made the little redhead walk over to where the Senator was.

"Don't worry, your Majesty. Once you are gone, and peace has been ensured, I will personally look after your little sister real good." Frollo said with a truly evil smile on his face. However, it turned immediately into agony as he saw that in an instant as he was pulling the trigger, his hand had been cut off. He screamed in pain.

"Huh?!" One of his minions shouted. "What's wrong?!" He didn't get an answer, because something had just pierced his stomach from behind and ripped out his innards. Asuna didn't react as blood came on her face. Next thing everybody knew, the other minions were literally being ripped apart by some unseen force. Afterward, there was a real bloody mess in front of them and there was one such person in the middle of it. For he had done the gory deed.

"Al." Nagi had to ask his healer. "Has he always been able to do that?"

"Even before I met him." Imma said, maintaining his face. "But he hasn't done that for as long as I dare to recall." He finished, quite disturbed at the carnage.

"You sound disturbed, old friend." Aristodemus said, his lower arms covered in blood of those he had just ripped asunder. "Isn't this why you studied healing magic?"

"And why do you sound so serene and calm with yourself!?" Nagi screamed at the Spartan. "Are you even aware that you killed somebody?"

"That's rich, coming from you, Nagi-kun." Aris said, walking up to him. "You've done the same as well, Thousand Master. This is nothing new to you."

"At least I wouldn't do something like this in front of a kid!" Nagi shouted in front of Aris, paying little attention in that Asuna was there. "That's not cool."

"At least I got something done." Aris retorted at the mage. "Where's the proper master who would just bash away the opponent regardless of the weapons they had? A few guns wouldn't be enough to stop you."

Frollo tried to crawl away from them whilst the two great masters were arguing between themselves. Wasn't the Strategou supposed to be dead from that shot? How come he survived? _"Senator Frollo. We've arrived at your location." _The fleets that were to the east and west reported in to him. Hearing about the danger, they came closer for greater accuracy. _"What are your orders?"_

"_Shoot down the main group. Ignore the lone figure, that's me. I want those rebels exterminated." _Frollo responded to them. It didn't take long before the bombardment began all around them.

"Shit!" Rachel cursed loudly. "Shishou, the fleets are shooting! They've gotten closer for this accuracy!" She screamed over to Aris, holding down Nagi. Those two noticed that the heavy infantry had gained enough courage to launch another attack.

"So it would seem, Rachel." Aristodemus shouted back at her. "Nagi." He addressed the Thousand Master. "I'll get rid of the troops, you get to cover."

"What!?" Nagi responded furiously. "I do not intend to run away. I'll stay and fight." The response to that was a punch right in his face.

"Don't be an idiot again, Nagi." Aristodemus scolded him. "Who else is going to look after the girls?" That made sense. "Tell Arika this: _Tempe Sede Vacante_ has begun. I would like to see that it ends as quickly as possible." With that, the Spartan shoved Nagi away from his own form.

"Damnit!" Nagi cursed as he ran over to Arika.

"Rachel!" Aris called to his disciple. "June 30th, 1908. Do you know that date?"

Rachel's eyes widened largely as she recognized the date. "Hey, chicks, make a hole! A Deep hole! Where we can all fit in!" She shouted as she ran over to the main group. "I'm not crazy! Boss' orders! Move your cute butts before I rape them myself instead of the soldiers!" That got some motion into everybody.

"Asuna, if I may?" Aris asked Asuna, who nodded at him so he could speak. "I'm in need of soldiers, would you grant me those?"

"How many?" Asuna asked of him, in her own monotone. It sounded eerily close to Averruncus since she lacked emotion in those days.

"About a hundred of them would do." The Spartan replied. The little princess nodded and closed her eyes. While unable to use magic on her own, she was certainly able to utilize magic items. A hundred magic circles shone beneath everyone, making them stop their actions temporarily. The soldiers were too far away to see what was happening. Out of these giant circles came huge clockwork golems, all similar in appearance. Forged out of bronze that resembled gold, they had massive shoulder plates, which had a similar arm-guard down at the lower arms. Both sides embraced a large tree, or World Tree, on both pads. Underneath the arm-guards, massive Katara like blades spurted out in response to the attacking soldiers. The soldiers gave pause when they saw the great golems, but Frollo (hiding somewhere) pushed them on. "Thank you, milady. Get to cover now." He didn't get an answer, because Albiero snatched her up and took her into the hole that the Epilektoi had built.

"Wait, so what did happen back there?" Vito asked the Spartan, and their attention went to the elder.

"I merely did what was considered best to do at the time, really." Aris replied cooly.

"I had command over an army of golems!?" Asuna said loudly. Aris nodded shortly at her. "Wow! That must have been some artifact back then."

"Best part?" The Spartan said. "It wasn't even one gained through Pactio. But let's get back to watching the movie, shall we?"

Senator Frollo was furious. First the Ala Rubra had attacked them, then the Strategou had intervened and the little brat had hurt his personal visage. He was not happy at all. And now, this futile army of golems came out of nowhere to fight against his superior forces. He was going to enjoy conquering Arcadia after this.

Suddenly, a huge beam of light shot upwards into the sky, shocking everybody but the golems standing firmly in front of the soldiers, their backs to the light. And in the center of the beam, a figure rose up inside. It was Aristodemus. But he didn't appear all small and stocky. No, he was massive this time, his muscles were like those of a body-builder who just pumps iron at the gym. And he was on fire. Were those spikes on his person as well? This is what they saw when the beam of light ended.

The soldiers were charging on them, the fleet was firing every cannon and turret they had, the golems readied their blades and the great person on fire gathered his hands together to form some sort of flaming ball, which shrunk to the size of a pea...

What the viewers saw next was an ever expanding white ball that had taken the whole area in its wake. First came the shockwave which caused massive ruptures and knocked down any standing tree and shattered rock. Then the noise. Oh, the noise! It was worse than what they had heard before. Luckily, it was a movie so the noise was dampened down in comparison.

"Right, let's end it there." Aris pressed the remote, stopping the movie, gaining much complains from the girls.

"That blast was bigger than any thing in Michael Bay movies..." Vito spoke up. Everyone looked at him quite awkwardly. "What? We get Old World movies here too, you know."

"In that case, I think I need to import better movies." Aris said quite annoyed now. "Any questions about the movie?"

"I got one immediately." Negi said. "In the movie, you told my father about _Tempe Sede Vacante _having started. That's what your real goal about me is. It means from Latin: 'Time of the Empty Throne'."

"Wait, what?" Yuuna spoke up. "You intend to make Negi-kun a king? King of what's left of Ostia?"

"That's correct, Yuuna-san." Negi replied to her. "You've been waiting twenty years for me to show up, and in making me regent, then you would have the means to get rid of the Senate for good. In the short run, that would be good, since that would everybody who believes in Monarchism happy, as well as give you good relations with the Southern Empire. One of the reasons why Theo could land here without trouble. But in the long run such a move could also bring the Confederation to an end, potentially resulting in another war. Am I right?" Negi demanded of the Spartan, who walked back to his own Iron forged throne.

"You are... half correct, Negi-kun." Aristodemus responded. "I don't want _you _on the throne, truthfully. I want someone of your _bloodline_ on the throne. And given that you got about over thirty potential lovers there amongst you, that could make things easier for me."

"Wait, does that mean that my kids are electable, too?" Asuna had to know.

"Of course. But it was generally decided that you do not become queen, Asuna. You're still too much of a threat to society."

Fate had to do some calculating with his fingers whilst this debate raged on. "Let's see... Aris wants someone of Negi-kun's family on the throne of Ostia, there are thirty future girlfriends right there..." He whispered to himself.

"I can easily read on your face, kid." The Spartan continued. "Why? Why am I so keen to overthrow the Senate in an attempt to get the Imperial bloodline back in charge of the Northern regions. There are three reasons for this. First of all, I'm a traditionalist, believing firmly that a monarch is the proper way to govern a country, be it absolute or constitutional. Second, I stood very close to your mother, Arika. I was her tutor, friend, and quite frankly, partner to her."

"Wait, Partner?" Haruna had to ask. "You mean..."

"Hence the big explosion on the silver screen." Aris pointed with his thumb to mentioned screen. "I'll tell you all about that someday, but not now. That was something the two of us decided on in case of an emergency, just so you know. And thirdly, I also happen to be Grandmaster of the Knights of Amateru, or Vesper Knights as they were nicknamed."

"The Knights of Amateru?" Andreas asked. "But isn't that just something symbolic these days?"

"True, but they also stand for protecting the family to whatever cost. I got friendly with King Hierenius II, which put me into the order. 150 years later, I was made Grandmaster. However, that puts me in not the best of positions."

"Why do you say that?"

"My loyalty is ultimately to the bloodline, not an individual ruler. In order to make sure that it stays strong, I've taken extreme measures to 'purify' the lineage. And for the record, I would like to point out that it was determined by one of your ancestors_ before_ I entered the Vesper Knights."

That explains a lot to Negi and Yue at least. "It's like growing grapes. In order to get the best fruits, you have to get rid of the bad ones." Yue said, unknowingly quoting Canute the Great.

"Hate me all you wish, but I blame such things on politics." Aris said in an attempt to prevent Negi from attacking him. "If you don't want the throne, just say so. I don't blame you. All I ask really, is someone from your family to take the assignment as king or queen. I'm able to handle the crisis with the Confederation if it comes to that. What you said was only the worst case scenario. There's also the chance that the populace will demand a monarch instead of the Senate, therefore leading them to step down and accept that Ostia is back as its own independent kingdom."

"I... do not really know if I want it or not." Negi finally answered. "Why is it that everybody in the big routes wants something out of me, when I simply don't want to? Do I really want the throne, or is it just worthless in the end? From what I have learned in the history books, when it comes to the crown of a king, there is ultimately a curse about being a king. The crown gives the bearer two orders: To use the power that comes with it at first, and to gain more power. It's either the throne, or the crown that has a mind of its own. If someone of my blood is to wear the crown of Ostia, then they must have what it takes to handle that curse, and not to abuse the position. That is all I demand, regarding that position."

Time stood still for awhile, before Aristodemus chuckled and gave Negi a rather powerful smack on his shoulder. It was stronger than anticipated, but the young prince still stood at least. Soon afterwards, applause came around, mostly from the girls. "Now those words are the words of a true king." Aris said, plucking out a bracer decorated with the mark of the Imperial family of Ostia along with rubies out of his mantle. "At least, you should have this. It's yours by blood. But you'll have to figure it out yourself. And you'll need it, if you're going to save both the world, and your bookworm girlfriend."

"Oh crap! Nodoka-san! I'd almost forgotten about her!" Negi exclaimed, making several girls fall over.

"Isn't she the cause of all this?" Eva asked loudly. "Why you came back to the Magic World, getting married and all, meeting a new girl, and learning more about your family?"

"Excuse me!" Andreas called out, gaining the attention. "Not to... draw the subject away from all this, but what are we going to do about Godel? He's making a mess in the Museum as we speak, fighting off the wax figures."

"Oh, thank you for reminding me, Andreas." Aris said, walking swiftly past him. "I'll handle that."

_**Over at Godel and the big wax fight... (I'm sorry, but the machine won't let me center text at all.)**_

Godel panted heavily, having fought off about over 300 wax figures and they were still coming. Thorkell, Leonidas and Cyrus were still standing, as they had more well made equipment than they originally had. And it was magically enhanced. "I'm impressed, really, of you guys." He addressed the leaders of this wax droid army. "For being from the backwards Old World, you fight quite good."

"Backwards, you say?" Cyrus retorted, having a good smile on his face. "I say that you are deliberately making us angry."

"If I could do it, I would rip out your innards for that, youngster." Leonidas complimented, holding a Falcata blade along with his large shield.

"Well, if you think you have a chance to defeat me..." Godel welcomed their attempt. "... then you can certainly come and-"

"WHAT ON _MARS_ ARE YOU DOING?!" A new voice halted all of them in their tracks. Aristodemus had shown up, in his massive armor and mantle, and he looked really pissed. He didn't have any weapons in his hands, but heck, he didn't need them for this. "Godel?" He addressed the general. "Providing false evidence, telling lies and destroying my property... I figure that warrants some jail time for you."

"So?" Godel retorted at him. "As a Senator, you know I can't be put in jail in a foreign prison."

"Then your phone call to them will contain the message that I don't give a damn about what they think." Aris retorted, stripping the general of his sword from a distance of 30 feet between them. "Rachel, could you escort the good senator to the prison and hold him there for about two weeks?"

"Yes, sir." Rachel appeared behind Godel and handcuffed him. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle with you, at least." She whispered in the senator's ear before taking him away.

"Right, now that that's been taken care of..." Aris said, his fearsome aura going off. "... you guys clean this mess up. And I want no complaints."

"Yes, sir." The wax figures responded and set about working.

"Now then, allow me to treat you to dinner at my place, Kids." Aris said to the people behind him. "I make an excellent moussaka. And you simply must try Precia-san's apple nectar."

"That doesn't sound too bad." Someone said, and the whole group of girls, magi, masters and royalty left the Museum of Life, and headed for the nicknamed_ Palace of Immortality_ (by Yuuna).

* * *

1. Aristodemus was originally a minor historic figure in history, one of Leonidas' 300. After two days of fighting, Xerxes and his massive army, and its equally massive food consumption, managed to get a shortcut around them, thanks to a traitor from the Greek. Originally, there were actually two Spartans among Leonidas' men who survived. The first was a Thessalian officer, but due to shame for not being there, he hanged himself. The other one, Aristodemus, was stricken by eye infection along with a fellow Spartan named Eurytus, but Eurytus ordered a slave to dress him in armor and lead him against the Persians. Aristodemus decided to follow his king's orders. Upon arrival in Sparta, he was deemed a trembler, the worst thing that could happen to a Spartiatoi except being exiled or killed. As mentioned, his bloodline would die out unless he proved his cowardice false. At Platea, in its all confusing glory, he did charge alone with the Tegeans against the traitorous Thebans. Aristodemus died in that battle, but not before surrounding himself with the bodies of his enemies. The ephors, those in command of Sparta, did admit that Aristodemus had proven himself worthy of being a true Spartan, but they didn't grant him any posthumous awards because he had broken ranks.

2. Personally, I'd put him in his fifties when the battle of Thermopylae took place. Paul Cartledge put Leonidas at being in his sixties when he died there. You think that's old? Cyrus the Great died in battle when he was well into his seventies. Now that's old, considering that the average life-span if you were lucky was only 40 years.

I got the name Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I needed someone to kill from the Senate, so I gave him that name. Rather fitting, don't you think?

**

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**

A/N: Right, glad that that's finished. Next chapter will the last in the Arcadia arc, and it will be a boring wall of text to fill in what Aris and Fate discussed some three chapters earlier. Now, those who sent me fair hypothesises, will be sent a sheet for their OC that will aid Nodoka in the coming arc. And on that bombshell, I will have to take a small break for a while. Dragon Age Origins is that good. Until then, good night!


	26. The game is on now

**A/N: Okay, now let's get back on track. Time for some time-skip in this chap. Weird thing is, my e-mail went bananas again, I didn't get alerted on two stories I got the Story Alert on when they did update.**

* * *

The same evening at dinner, everyone were trying out that moussaka that Aristodemus had promised them back at the museum. Satsuki had somehow managed to get the recipe, along with some ideas on her nikuman stuffings. Only God knows her secrets of persuasion. I for one swear, it must be her calm posture all the time.

"Guess you were right back there..." Rakan said to Precia as he had tried some moussaka. "Golems don't eat... Hey, am I still able to...?"

"Get any?" Precia asked, sitting next to the golem. "Afraid not. We had to discard those so that you could continue to live on." Rakan made a headdesk on the table in depression. "Shame. I'm sure you would have been something."

"Precia-san... You probably shouldn't say such things when you're in your fifties." Aris said, halting his own slow eating.

"That coming from someone who probably spent the last two thousand courting ladies and pretty girls from the countryside." Precia countered.

"Hey. It's called being a gentleman. What's wrong with that?"

Leaving the elders alone for now, everyone was having a ball. Chatting up about everything, the girls were discussing about what style they would use individually, or what affinity they would get from their training that would start once they got back home. Fate could be very brutal from what Negi had told them, but at least he would keep you alive.

"Come now," Chizuru told the twins to eat properly the vegetables that came with the moussaka. "If you don't eat properly, you won't be as beautiful as the rest of us." She sang in a happy tone.

Hearing that, a certain blonde little girl halted her taking off some veggies from her plate, blushing when a certain young magi noted her actions. Alicia promptly started eating her veggies again. Negi didn't say anything, mainly due to that he felt being watched by others. Even if she was younger than him, some of the girls spilled out killing auras at the cute girl. _I swear, I really need to talk to them about this. _Negi thought to himself, as he unintentionally cleaned her cheek. Alicia was a very quiet girl at the moment, but that took her by great surprise.

"Um... thank you." Was what she said, quietly so that only he could hear it.

_Dammit! Not what I expected. _Negi thought to himself. Unfortunately, his thoughts were being picked up by someone else there.

"_Well, you certainly have a special charm about yourself, Negi-kun."_ Fate's voice was heard inside his head, as the construct was sitting by the window having himself a good cup of coffee. _"No wonder everyone in your class volunteered for this obstacle. We might as well have them go dancing on a pole to see how far they go for you."_

"_Fate, you really shouldn't say such things about my students." _Negi responded back to the white haired magi. _"Isn't their friendship and affection to me the same as your girls' loyalty to you?"_

"_I suppose you're right there. But I for one could never pick them up so fast as you."_

"_Why are we having this conversation to begin with?"_

"_Got bored, I suppose."_

"_That, and I do think that Alicia-san is cute." _Negi thought loudly, and Fate nodded to him before returning to his coffee.

Theo was thinking to herself about what she would do when she got back home. Her father, the Emperor would be furious with this. And apparently, seeing the head of this island being not happy, might be a very good idea on what Papa might be when she comes home. _Maybe I should stay here in Arcadia until the papers arrive._

The two new guys there were sitting together, talking about some of their own exploits to the girls that did listen, Kazumi and Chizuru being among them. Being a monster hunter, Vito did have some funny encounters with monsters, some ending up with him being in a real sticky situation afterward, literally. Andreas on the other hand was a traveling merchant, so he had seen a lot of odd stuff himself. He did mention one occasion when he accidentally spoofed some kind of pheromone on himself, and ended being chased by all the girls in the town he was staying in at the time. Oh, how the girls laughed at that.

Rachel, now Rachel, she was drinking alcohol again. But this time, the little pervert had some self control over herself, and kept herself to mild stuff so that she wouldn't grope anyone in the process of the small feast, _again._ She was still sober after three bottles of... whatever it was that they drank in the Magic World. "I tell you, girls," She told Haruna and Misa, some of those with slightly more perverted things in mind. "It's not really the size that counts. It's how one uses it."

"So are you sure that it's how you use it, and not the size that counts?" Haruna asked the little girl.

"Of course. Master has gone that way too. Way long before me."

"Has he?"

"Oh, yes. And to this day, he would go for using daggers over a staff." Rachel noted on their discussion about a good weapon to begin with. Admit it, you were thinking something else, weren't you?

Hakase was squealing over a spare hand for a golem she had gotten from the lab. Now she could make something really good, based on that technology. Everybody was busy eating.

"Hey, Negi." Asuna called to her nephew. "I think we need to talk in private." She gestured for him to come out on the balcony. Once they were out there, she turned to him. "I guess we got a much bigger perspective of things now, don't you think?"

"I suppose you're right." Negi responded and looked out over Ithaca. "I'd never expected to have someone like Aristodemus-san watch over us this whole time."

"True. But can we really trust him?" Asuna inquired. "You heard him yourself. He's killed members of our family. Even if he's a good guy, how do we know that he won't go and kill us as well?"

"And risk ending the royal family?" Negi retorted. "He doesn't seem to be that kind of guy. He probably did what he had to do back then."

"I don't know." Asuna said eventually. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Having been possessed by the Life Maker seems to have made me a bit ballistic about a few things."

"Sounds awful, I take it." Negi tried to get a smile from her.

"Don't." Asuna ordered him. "But honestly, what are we going to do about it?" Asuna said, looking upwards to see Mars' two moons. "It's not just the old geezer. I'm also talking about that Fashtar fellow." That name cut a chill into Negi. "He kidnapped Honya-chan, fought Fate, and poisoned you. And yet, we don't even know his real goal with us. I mean, what kind of student of... whatever it was, leaves a magic sword and figurines that summon dragons in the hands of people he barely knows and leaves it at that? He's up to something."

"I suppose you're right. And I do hope that Nodoka-san is alright, too." Negi said, turning to the sky as well.

"Hey, she's fine. I got Fashtar to look after her unless he wants his spine crushed. And from what we know, an arch-mage is looking after her now. She's gonna be fine, and waiting for us when we get to... wherever she is right now."

"Yeah, you're right, I suppose." Negi responded filled with hope, before getting a smell from inside. "Is that cinnamon I smell?"

Asuna took a few sniffs as well. "I smell apple... They got Apple and Cinnamon pie in there. Let's get some before it runs out!" Both royalties ran inside to save some pie for themselves.

_**Back to Ostia**_

"Well, that was quite the experience." Setsuna said, laying on a couch with a sleeping Konoka on her lap. The Hanyou was resetting her hair, redyeing it with black but only on the tip of her hair, giving her a new look about herself.

"Yes, we certainly didn't expect getting married on arrival." Madoka said sarcastically, wearing a new pair of bracers that the Spartan had given her. Everyone in class had been given a special item which would boost their own abilities, or grant them some new ones. The cheerleader's bracers were handmade out of bronze, each with the body of a snake put into it, with topazes replacing their eyes.

"Well, we shouldn't let it affect how we view each other." Asuna said, before remembering that her own wife was there, going for Negi once she finished saying that. "And Negi wasn't free to begin with, Ayaka!"

"But you can't just render him out of the game, Asuna-san." Ayaka retorted, hugging Negi, much to Makie's own dismay. "I don't care if he's married now, he'll always be our Negi-sensei."

"So share him with us then!" Yuuna shouted, fly tackling the class representative along with Haruna. "You can't keep him to yourself all the time!"

"No fair! All of you have been a bit lovey-dove with sensei the last time you were here, I demand to have some time caught up with you!" Ayaka shouted back at them whilst Negi was being whisked away to safety

_Didn't she listen to the whole story when I introduced myself to the rest of the class? _Fate thought to himself watching the whole escapade from afar. _Or is she just highly obsessed about Negi-kun for something?_

"Guys!" Setsuna hissed at them. "You're gonna wake Konoka up."

"Oh, sorry." The others said, with a sorry smile on their faces, but cat-grins behind the mask since it seemed like a private love moment between Setsuna and her charge.

"Huh?" Akira noticed Kazumi seeing absent minded for once. "Asakura-san, is something wrong?" The swimmer asked the paparazzi.

"Huh?" Kazumi jumped at Akira's question. "No, there's nothing wrong. I'm fine." She responded back.

"Asakura-san is thinking about that Monster Hunter we met back there." Sayo tattled on her best friend.

"Traitor." Kazumi scolded the little doll. "Sigh, fine, I'm thinking about Vito-san."

"That idiot we met when we faced Aris-san?" Akira had to make sure on that one. "You're thinking about him?"

"Well, he's kinda nice and good-minded." Kazumi retorted at her. "Day before we left Arcadia, I heard he got transferred to somewhere cold. I do wonder why."

"Well, he's not exactly in the boy scouts, Asakura-san. I hear those SH are some of the toughest groups to be in."

"Still..." Kazumi said, before holding out a Xiphos. "He gave me this after I got my neat chamo-cloak from Aristodemus-san."

"Did you see what Chizuru-san got from his friend, Andreas-san?" Asuna said, overhearing the conversation. "She got a CD with some European band. Was it Alby... or Abo? Or..."

"It's ABBA, Asuna. One of the best in the whole Old World." Akira said. "I've heard some of their stuff. It's incredible really."

"Is it?" Asuna sounded surprised. "Then I expect that she'll be playing that CD when we get back to training..."

"I don't mind, really." Fate said, surprising all three of them. "They say music is good when you're exercising, anyway."

"Would you please stop doing that?" Asuna demanded of him.

"If you're referring to be there at the perfect time to make a comment, or scaring you by being actually there, I will do that." The white haired magi responded. "But it's going take a while."

"Have I ever told you that I hate you?"

"No, but I got the message a few times through your actions." That ended the conversation between those two.

After having been free from the class representative's grip, Negi sat on the railing on the outside of the ship, next to the ship's hidden minigun. He was tinkering with the bracer that he had been given. So far, he hadn't been able to activate it, but he wasn't really wanting for that at the moment. _And here I go again. Next time I'm coming here, I'm likely to find my godfather as well. If I got one that's still alive..._ Looking out over the horizon, seeing a small village in the distance, his mind went back to Nodoka again. _She's okay out there. I know her, one of the most courageous people I know. She's gonna be fine. And it's likely she'll make friends there too. _The young magi was right about that without even knowing it. _But once she gets back... or when I get to her if I have to, what should I say to her? What would she say to me? Oh, listen to myself here, I sound like a love-crazed boy. Wait, I didn't really mean that._

"_You sure about that?" _A certain telepath inquired of the magic prince.

"_Shut up, you!"_

_**In the Spartan Palace...**_

It's been nearly a week since Negi and his minor army has left the Magic World by now. Things had gotten quiet since the girls had left. It was back to the dull life of paperwork and long hours of being bored. Cheese slice snaps could only last for so long. Rachel was drinking heavy alcohol again, trying to get her mind off things, Precia had gone back to the lab to study the same way they had brought back Alicia in, the latter was playing rapid Othello with Andreas, who wasn't going anywhere at the moment. Aris in person, was dangling a 10 pound heavy Xiphos on his index finger. He seemed bored about something, and troubled too.

"Hey, old man." Rakan walked up to the elder, calling him old since he knew his real age now. "Mind filling some gaps for me, at least?"

"Your point?" Aris asked absent minded.

"Don't be like that. You may have kept some stuff hidden from Negi, but I at least can stay resistant to your tone. A very good one, I admit, but it doesn't work on everyone."

"I fail to see where you're going with this." Aris retorted at him in the same tone.

"You were Arika's partner for ten years and you never told any of us in the Crimson Wing?" Rakan told the Spartan, getting a little impatient. "You also stayed quiet in the case when Negi and his gang first arrived here, helping only on the sidelines. Negi might be satisfied right now, but I for one demand answers, since I'm stuck here until all those damn tests led by Precia are done!"

The Spartan sighed, knowing that Rakan wouldn't relent until he knew the whole story. "Fine, but I want you to do something in return." He said, thrusting the Xiphos into the window railing so that only the hilt could be seen. Rakan nodded at him for him to start. "I told you the truth that Arika came to me regarding the Pactio. She was planning the coup 'etat and told me the whole story. That her father was... a puppet of Cosmo Entelecheia. I was set as the escape plan in case things went wrong. I was also set as her bodyguard if it came to a fight between her and the king."

"So that's the reason why you were her partner, at least." Rakan said, whilst Rachel stopped drinking and started listening in. "But what was it you were able to do? What was the artifact that you had?"

"My artifact..." Aristodemus continued whilst closing his eyes. "was not a weapon, support item, or anything like that. It was a power, a unique power."

"A unique power?"

"Let me put it this way: You recall the date I said in the movie, right?"

"Yeah, 30th of June, 1908." Rakan said. "Why?"

"Back then on that date, there was a massive explosion in mid-air in the region of Tunguska, Siberia, causing night to turn to day for a couple of days and night. You could read the newspaper as in broad daylight whilst the clock said midnight in Europe." Aris explained to the golem. "Back then, the natives that lived in Tunguska, believed that an ancient fire god rumored to be in that same area, was furious with that they had abandoned his ways and sought revenge."

Rakan started to laugh. "Yeah, so they thought that... it was... a... now wait a minute. You were the real cause back then in those days?"

"No, I was never there at the time." Aris answered. "But it gives you an idea about my artifact with Arika."

"Wait..." Rakan said, turning sour, and Rachel really got on to this. "You're telling me that you could that same power as that explosion?" Aris raised an eyebrow to indicate that there was more to it. "Whoa, whoa, whoa... It's not just the Tunguska event that you could do. It was-"

"What we think of as gods, are actually mix pots of powerful magi and warriors that forever struck into our minds, giving us a picture that they were invincible. Essentially, all those figures formed into one entity in our heads over time: Deities. My artifact allowed me to harness those powers and use them myself." Aristodemus finished for Rakan.

"So basically, for the ten years that Arika was still alive, you were truthfully a god incarnate."

"Not the first time to be honest." Aris amused the golem. "Back when I was still young as an Immortal, the Spartans believed me to be an avatar of Ares, the Greek god of war. For a time I believed so too, but after Sparta's fall, I didn't stay as God of war any longer."

"And you don't miss being all that?"

"Drop that question right now, Jackie-chan." Aris addressed the golem by a pet name he made up once. "I never needed all that power. I was already powerful to begin with. That time at the Cerberus Canyon was the only time I ever used the artifact."

"And it turned out just as you had anticipated?" Rakan asked of the Spartan, whilst Alicia was celebrating her 15th victory of Othello over Andreas, who had won: Zero times. He was resting his head on the Othello board, some weird smoke coming up above his head. "But if Frollo did die back there, then the Senate wouldn't have been too happy about it."

"True, but at the same time, I sent out a message to them that, in the terms of today's youngsters, they wouldn't fuck with me. I'm not happy with them being in charge and they know it, so Negi-kun provides me with an opportunity to show them how things should be." Aris finished on that matter.

"Damn." Rakan suddenly had a lot of respect for the old man on a whole new level. "You actually know what to do. Okay, what do you want me to do in return?"

"Jack..." Aristodemus started, looking out the window. "I want you to open up a school."

Out of all the requests that had been assembled in his head, that one was the most unexpected. "What?"

"You heard. You should open a school. Getting old is not really a good thing."

"You want me to open a school?" Rakan asked of the Spartan. "Why on earth do you want me to do such a thing?"

"There are two reasons for my request, Jack." Aris started to explain. "First of all, you're getting old. That new body of yours was never designed to last forever. You'll age and eventually, your run-time will run out. And even if you are mentioned in the history books, you'll be forgotten, a name always stuck on a piece of paper. With a school, your name would always be remembered and everyone would know how you fought and gain a brand new view on how good you were."

"Right." Rakan could say after hearing all that. "What's the second reason?"

"That's why I'm so down. For the past week since Negi-kun left, I've been in contact with the World leaders regarding the Githyanki incident. Everything that I know has been told to the others, and we are in the middle of discussing it."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Come on, Jack. You know the full story as much as I do." The Spartan told the golem. "One of Negi-kun's own Ministrae was abducted by these aliens and they are aware of magic. And from what Averruncus told me earlier, these guys are planning to do a classic thing we expect from alien cultures. Invasion."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there." Rakan had to halt the old man's little speech at this. "Let me get this straight: Averruncus thinks that these guys will invade Earth? Even if that is true, how is that a big problem? Earth is capable of defending itself."

"True, but that's not all. The Githyanki are magic users as well. If they used magic to attack Earth, and IF they succeed, where do you think they'll turn next?"

The skin job on Rakan's new body was magnificently done, because the sword master went suddenly pale upon hearing that question. "They'll be able to reach us."

"Mundus Magicus." Aristodemus responded. "There's more to it. Even if Earth manages to fight back the Githyanki, we also forget the magi that live there. Been taught that magi exists to defend humanity, that will lead to another thing which isn't good for us."

Rachel dropped her bottles for once, and Alicia and Andreas had stopped their Othello game once they all thought of that. "Alicia-chan, could you cover your ears please?" Rachel asked the little girl who obeyed like the nice gentle girl she was. "GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!" She screamed loudly at the final scenario of what would happen. "We're gonna get discovered by the mundane people! They're gonna find out every goddamn thing about us!"

"Wait, is that for real?!" Andreas screamed over Rachel's exclamations.

"I'm afraid so." Aristodemus responded, with a stern grimace on his own face. "Every scenario I can think up on, it leads to the same damn thing: Magic will be discovered, whether as a small secret, or as a self explanatory existence. We win or lose, magi intervenes, magi does not intervene. It all leads to the same result regarding us."

"Did you mention this to them as well?" Rakan demanded to know. Now things were coming crashing down on them.

"I did. At first, they didn't pay heed, but once I said that every scenario leads to this, they started taking it seriously. There must have been some sort of conclusion by now."

"So that's why you want me to open a school." Rakan said, remembering his returned favor to do. "You want as many good fighters on our side, should things come to the worst."

"Yatzee." The Spartan said, before the big doors to the room opened up to reveal those people in person that he had been talking to. The Consul of Megalomesembria, President Seras Victoria, the Pro-Consul and naturally the Emperor of Hellas. They didn't seem too happy about things that were proceeding. "Decided to pay a visit regarding this, my lords and lady?" Aristodemus said gently at them.

"Come on, guys, let's leave them for now and wait outside." Rachel asked Rakan, Andreas and Alicia. Once they were outside, the world leaders started talking.

"We don't like it, but we have decided that we're going to help the Old World in this endeavor." The Consul of Mesembria started. "We have already started deploying our forces for transfer."

"The Problem is though, we can't decide on someone to maintain control over all our troops." President Seras continued. "We can keep communications up between ourselves, but past grievances make it difficult for us to hold together."

"Is there a reason you came here when we could have discussed this over our screens instead?" Aris had to ask them.

"We came to a daring conclusion, but it's something you would have to agree on yourself, Strategou. If we offered you the position, would you accept it?" The Emperor asked the shorter man.

"You mean, being in charge of this military operation, your Majesty?" Aris asked surprised at them. "Normally, I would say no, but given that we are all in a tight spot which we can't get out of no matter what route we take, I would be mad not to accept."

"So, you'll do it then?"

"I have a few conditions for this: Put aside your differences, you'll follow my orders absolutely, and anyone who doesn't follow them is stripped of rank whatever it is."

"Then, we are pleased to appoint Strategou Aristodemus of Sparta as Commander-in-Chief for the Magic World." The Consul exclaimed. "What are your orders right now?"

"I want sub-commanders." Aristodemus started. "Get me a list of all the available generals and admirals you have, I want records of as many troops as we can spare for this. Once we get the clear from the Old World leaders, we can deploy our own troops in remote areas on Earth. I want volunteers for journeys to the Old World, they must be willing to work alongside the mundane people. Don't hesitate to draft in the best; We need every advantage we can get, whether it be radical or orthodox."

"Understood." The World leaders said and they turned around to walk out, save the Emperor. "There's one thing I want to make clear, Commander."

"Yes, your Majesty?"

"Young Master Springfield is going to be a very important piece in this. I entrust you to look after both him and my daughter. The two needs some time to get over their... accident as you would call it at this point." The Emperor pointed out.

"Yes. I would look after Negi-kun even if you didn't tell me. Because that's what Queen Arika would tell me to do, after all. Care to talk with him at some point?"

"Of course. I may even teach him a few things about politics." The Emperor did turn away now to leave the room. "And Commander, may the Gods watch over us. We need them more than ever."

Being left alone now, the Spartan opened up a comms channel to Precia in the lab. "Precia-san, how fast is our productions rate at full speed."

"_About fifty items an hour."_

"Get working immediately. We need weapons and gadgets, and fast. I'm going to organize a special team in Japan. Mind if I take Alicia with me?"

"_I don't mind. She's your little girl too. And make sure Lochaber behaves as well. I don't want him go insulting people too much whilst my daughter is nearby."_

"Understood. Thank you." Aris closed the channel. "Rachel! Get Princess Theodora and have her pack her bags. We're going to the Old World again. And get me a special squad from Ariadne too. I want the cadets they have there. Get me a good group."

"Yes sir." Rachel rushed off somewhere.

"Alicia, we're going to the Old World. We ought to get you all prepared. Can you survive without Mother for some time?" Aris asked the little girl, kneeling in front of her. She nodded and went to her new room that she had gotten once she was resurrected again. "And Andreas. I want you to relay messages to everybody in the Spartan Hounds. Here's the relay codes, get the messages to every section I have men stationed in. We're back in action on full time."

"Yes, sir." The merchant said and headed off somewhere.

"And somebody get Godel out of Jail! I need to talk to him!"_ I gotta go get my cars._ The new Commander in chief thought as he began to plan a new training schedule. _Now let's see. I need to talk to Karl, get an audience with Eishun, contact a few magic organizations, phew, this is a lot on my plate right now. Good thing I've spent all my time with military commanders in the past._

**

* * *

**

A/N: Now, that's the end of the Arcadia arc. FINALLY! Took longer than I expected. And by the time you're reading this, you probably are very interested in this story. It doesn't seem I'm very popular right now with my plotting. I'm sorry, but I'll be making it up now, I promise! It's gonna be really good stuff involving Nodoka! There'll be adventure, prophecies, fanservice (for real!) and someone bashing his head against a pillar! See you then!

**- Haruna's ship really does have a minigun. I saw it on raw pages of the next chapter. That was awesome. My proof of that it has weapons, is chapter 219, when Haruna shows up and complains that she was just going to use the ship's hidden weapons after Negi had defeated those bounty hunters.**


	27. The adventure begins

**A/N: Here we go, with the start of the Tu'narath arc. I've been planning this arc for months, discarding ideas until I got the best one, plus it brought up a few laughs to me. Here goes! Oh wait, why are we zooming in on Ariadne first? Oh, yes, now I remember the lines...**

* * *

Of all the things that she could expect to hear in mission briefings, going to the Old World was the last thing Emily Sevensheep had expected at all. "Let me double-check that, please, Grandmaster?" She asked President Seras Victoria. "You want me and my squad, to go on a special mission, to the Old World, along with the newly appointed Commander-in-chief himself?"

"That is correct, Emily." Seras responded at the cadet, who went big wide eyed at the answer. "I was requested to get him a good squad for this mission along with himself, his own batman, the Third Princess of Hellas and his granddaughter. Your squad was one of the first that came to mind."

"But what about the Elite Valkyries? Surely they are more experienced than my own group, and more suited for this!" Emily tried to protest against this notion.

"Well, I thought so too, but Aristodemus was adamant and I quote: 'The elite troops are good, but their training blinds them to other possibilities. Young, inexperienced soldiers do have bright ideas that work more efficiently than what you find in a textbook.' So with that in mind, you're the best I can offer him."

"So we're to follow the direct orders of an eccentric old man in this?" Emily had to speak her mind this time.

"Don't say that in front of him, or he will have you expelled from this academy, Emily." Seras scolded the cadet. "I'm sorry, but I did give my word that his orders would be followed absolutely, and frankly, there's nothing I can do. I could get fired if I said no to him as well."

"If I might speak my mind again, what kind of commander did we end up with here?" Emily asked loudly again.

"A very good one who wants to see this world saved." A voice behind the cadet said, making Sevensheep turn around. This time, it was a fairly tall lady, with crimson red hair which was cut short so that it barely reached her shoulders. She was also deeply tanned, with a pair of fangs sticking out somehow on her, giving Emily the impression of a vampire at first. But since it was daylight, that impression was wrong. She was wearing a brown business suit with military rankings on it along with a cut miniskirt. But whether this was for giving boys eye-candy or for practical usage, the cadet was uncertain.

"Ah, yes. Emily, may I present you to the Commander's batman, Rachel. She's mainly a shapeshifter, and I'm sure you can find her in some of our old records."

"Pleased to meet you, Sevensheep. I saw you back in Ostia at the festival." Rachel commented Emily. "Well done, for someone your age."

"Er, thank you, Rachel-san." Emily responded, not knowing fully what to say. "Sorry. I don't really know what to say about this. Being blackmailed into this..."

"I know, I don't like it myself," Rachel admitted. "I was drafted myself into this. And look where that got me. The Commander's batman. Heh. I'm sure you and your group will get along nicely with the locals where we're going."

"Locals?"

"From what the commander has told me, we'll be going to Japan for setting up a base of operations. We'll be set as ordinary people, going to school, work, whatever we have been assigned as." Rachel informed the cadet. "I hate to cut this short, but we need to get going. We leave Ariadne this afternoon. Get your group together and we'll be off to Ostia as soon as you're done packing."

"Er, yes ma'am." Emily gave a brisk salute and the taller woman left the room. "Exactly what records could I find that lady in, Grandmaster?"

"Truthfully, you can find her in the criminal charges records." Seras answered her with a blunt face. "That girl has done things even a master criminal wouldn't consider doing." That comment left Emily speechless and had her leave the room. _Weird thing is, those records has been around for the past 50 years or something..._

* * *

"We're going where!?" Collet exclaimed at the news that Emily had told them all outside in the hall whilst classes were still going on.

"The Old World." Emily answered. "We have been chosen by the Commander-in-chief himself to go with him there for the duration of this crisis. What we're going to do, I don't know, but I do get the feeling that it's a glorious task."

"Honestly, Class Rep," Von Katz, one of the two cat-girls in their group commented. "You fascination for glory is getting a little bit out of hand."

"Is that so bad?" Emily asked them. "What's wrong with being a little proud about this?"

"My, my, little Emily..." Rachel's voice cut her off, taking all of them by surprise. "Haven't this academy taught you that Pride is a deadly sin? The most lethal of them all?" The mysterious woman seemed eerily dangerous now, looking at them with sharp eyes. "You might be able to learn some humility whilst we're away."

"You again..." Emily said as the business woman approached them. "I checked into your file, Rachel-san." She came directly at her. "You have been accused of murder, theft, sexual assault on minors, espionage and manslaughter among other things. I was shocked really when I saw all those charges on you. So why would any of us here work alongside with a high level criminal to begin with?"

"There are several reasons for it, little girl." Rachel responded. "First of all, if you read the files entirely, you'll have found that they dropped all those charges when they couldn't find enough evidence against me. Secondly, the Commander doesn't really care about such things, as long as we can get the job done. And thirdly, I've put aside such actions a long time ago." Rachel marched against Emily, who backed against the wall. "So tell me, Emily, if I'm such a horrible person, why are you even agreeing to work along with me?"

"Well, because..."

"Because that's what we're being ordered to do, that's why." Rachel said, leaning closely to Emily's face, and then pecking her nose. "Now then, with that out of the way, we should get going."

"You... kissed my nose?" Emily said, looking at the fleeing woman in a business suit.

"Let's get a move on, girls."

"You kissed my nose." Emily tried to get Rachel's attention.

"Go to your rooms and pack the bags, we'll leave when you're done."

"YOU! KISSED! MY! NOSE!"

"Is there a problem?" Rachel asked completely innocent.

**A/N: Before we continue, I'd like to apologize to you. The minigun turned out to have been made by Haruna's artifact. But it's friggin' awesome anyway. That is all.**

_**Meanwhile, elsewhere...**_

"_It is day 13 at the trial of General Cireka, who was charged with the crime of illegal slavery and abuse of two human girls, brought from the surface. These charges are very serious for General Cireka, and if found guilty, she could be facing exile or the death penalty." _The female alien news-reporter said the screen as the pink haired girl watched them along with two younger Githyanki girls. For thirteen days they have been housed up in Lord Ashracai's personal underground palace, living as his daughters until they can go home, by decree of the Emperor whom they had yet to meet. _"Cireka is a traditional xenophobe, having a particular hatred for humans, after a costly campaign that cost the lives of more than 123 000 soldiers. Until recently, no one has reported previous abuse caused by Cireka, but with the feared general behind bars right now, witnesses and soldiers under her command have started talking. Captain Kash had this to say regarding Cireka's personal actions:"_

"It's the same thing all the time." Hina complained at the TV screen that was floating in the air, rising up from the... couch would be the best description. "Why is that Cabal just delaying the sentence for that woman?" She said as Lieutenant Kash, now Captain Kash, told the truth what Cireka had done to disobedient residents at the Institute.

"Well, she is rather popular with them nonetheless." The first of the Githyanki girls said, the one named Na'rai. Na'rai seemed like a normal Githyanki child, except the black hair, like Kash and the purple pupils. She was a Teleporter, and apparently on level 7, the highest rank of ESP ability there was on Tu'narath, at least underground. "She does have an excellent record of military success, even though some were rather too much to pay for."

"But you're right, Hina." The other one named Amith, a Psychometer (ergo, one who can tell one's inner thoughts just by touching them) who was also level 7. "She should be given the death penalty for this. There are rules to follow, if it wasn't for that the Cabal consists of utter idiots who bribed their way in there rather than Papa who earned his place there."

"Amith-chan, you shouldn't really be using words like that." Hina tried to tell the little girl who had dyed her hair white, to make her more exotic. Considering that they seemed to be only 10 years old, it was surprising that they could be thinking about boys at their age.

"Really?" Amith said, taking a liking to the -chan word that the two human girls addressed them with. "I was just speaking my mind, really. There's nothing wrong with that."

_True, but you should have picked better words really. _Hina thought to herself there.

"I'm not going to touch you for that." Amith retorted, having a sense for telling when somebody thought something. "Even I got limits really."

"Right, I believe you for that." Hina said, turning away.

"Touching you two while you sleep is more fun. Oh, Hayate was his name, yes?" Amith's innocent-sounding question halted the pink haired girl in her tracks. That did explain what Amith wanted to sleep in the same bed as her in the time she's been here. And Nodoka has fallen for the same trick too, it seems. "Oh, the lovely dirty thoughts you get about him from time to time. Ah, they make me wish I was an adult too." Amith really started to make Hina very error shunt abort at the little girl. "But Nodoka's dreams about Negi-kun is so nice too! I'd be killing to get a hold of him as well!"

_As well!?_ Hina thought furiously, as her Chi practically caused flames to go around her. It was pretty well convincing, since Na'rai got a bit worried at their safety. _She's been thinking dirty things all along, about both Nodoka's own Negi-kun... and also Hayate-kun! Why that little...!_

"But, you could really count yourself out of the game now." Amith's last comment ticked the pink haired girl off now. "With that lovely Maria-san down there with Hayate-kun, you might as well-"

"AMITH!" Na'rai shouted as they teleported away from the couch just before Hina had sliced it asunder with Masamune. The two alien girls landed safely behind the angry girl and this was the first time they had actually seen her this angry. "If you're going to make her mad, you could at least do so when Iliss is here!" Na'rai scolded her sister. "Without her, we can't fly!"

"Geh!" Amith swallowed what she was going to say. "You're right there, I admit..." Amith stammered out, before Hina's mad eyes fixed upon the two, and they stiffened with fear. "NOOOO!" They screamed holding each other as the human charged at them, Boken ready to strike.

Only, she stopped in mid-air right before them. She was still aflame, but Hina couldn't seem to move at all, never-mind reaching the two girls. "Oh, thank Tiamat that you came, Iliss. I don't think I could've... got..." Na'rai stopped talking once she saw who it really was who stopped Hina from smiting the two girls.

It was their Papa.

Ashracai stood at a distance from them, wearing a Githyanki equivalent of a tuxedo, showing that he had crimson red hair, which was shorter in comparison to others the two human girls had seen. He stood there, not showing that he had stopped Hina, but he teleported over to the pink haired girl and picked her up, swaying her left to right to try and soothe. "Amaya No Sa..." He started singing next to her ear.

"Nomayi Ki Saga..." Hina finished as the flames around her disappeared.

"Better?" He asked her.

"Yes." Ashracai put her down when she said that. "Sorry about that, but what she said, really hit the spot on me." Hina said as she brushed off what dust had come to her when she had ruined the couch.

"Yes, I can see the extent of what happened." The arch-mage said as he inspected the couch. "How many time do I have to tell you girls that you shouldn't make fun of them while Hinagiku and Nodoka are here? They are your sisters as much as Duuth, Saath and Ifrith are your siblings."

"Papa, you neglect the fact that they are human." Na'rai protested at their father's statement. "Why would you take in humans at this time in life?"

"Personally, I would have had both Hinagiku and Nodoka sent home because of this incident with Cireka. But you know how eccentric the Emperor can be sometimes. Ordered me to keep them here on Tu'narath, and there's not much I can do until he says otherwise." Ashracai retorted at them before an explosion occurred not far from them, coming from the bathroom. "Step back." He told them all, and he did the same as they did. A few seconds later, he halted a third Githyanki girl with red long hair decorated with pearl white beads right in her flying. She had black pupils like other Githyanki and she seemed rather normal looking for a child. "Decided to cut in on Nodoka's private bath time, was it, Iliss?"

"She said she wanted someone to scrub her back back there." Iliss, the trio's level 7 Psychokinesis responded in her defence.

"Scrubbing someone's back doesn't mean you get to grab their boobs too!" Nodoka shouted in return from the bathroom. Ashracai's eyes narrowed, and the hanging girl could only smile in an attempt to get out of this sticky situation. Didn't work.

"Again with molesting grown people." Ashracai said rather than questioned Iliss. "Where did you pick up such a habit to begin with. You're simply too young for it." The arch-mage went on as he released his psychokinesis, making the little girl go flying on her own with her psychokinesis.

"Well, if you must know, Papa..." Iliss began telling the truth, whilst Nodoka came out wearing an elegant bathrobe. "Back at the day-care, I was always left out by the kids my age, so the older ones started taking me in, especially at the bath times. And you can't blame them for having such bodies. I mean-"

"Enough." Ashracai stopped her. "So it was the elder children at the childs' care center who made you like this. I feel like I need to talk to some people again."

"Right." Hina said, going over to Nodoka, and led her away to their room. "We'll be having our dinner in our room again, Tou-san."

"I'll send someone to bring you fruit this time." Ashracai called to them as they went up the stairs. "And don't stay up late, it's bad for your skin."

"We know!" Hina shouted back at the arch-mage. Once they were eating dinner in their room, they could talk properly. For all this happening to them, they never really had much time to talk privately. And when I say privately, I do mean that they could talk like girls to one another, get to know each other better, stuff like that. "Some time, huh?"

"Yes." Nodoka responded to the pink haired girl. "I never thought I'd end up like this: stuck on an alien planet with people I don't know, waiting for a transport back home..."

"Hey, we know each other now, alright?" Hina said, making Nodoka look at her. "We're in this together. And we're going to stick together."

"You're right, you're right. I'm sorry, I'm not really used to this kind of stuff." Nodoka excused herself. "But who is Hayate, really?" She asked the pink haired girl. "From everything you told me, you didn't say anything about a Hayate."

Hina sighed at this, after having some grapes. "Alright, but you gotta tell me about the one you like, then." She retorted at the bookworm. "Hayate-kun is... really the one I'm in love with. He's a butler working at a mansion because of a huge debt his parents dumped on him and fled. I met him several times since his mistress went to the same school I went to. Over time, we grew close to each other. Then he told me after a date in Athens, that he was in love with someone else." Hina felt tears coming up to her eyes. "I knew her. They hadn't seen each other for ten years, but Athena had a huge impact on him. I felt... almost betrayed. I loved him as well, but what chance do I have now? Stuck here?"

"That's okay really. You take it slowly, and let him take his pace with you. Who knows, maybe he'll realize you and start loving you back?" Nodoka asked gently.

"Yeah, but I'm not the only one after him. There's Nagi, Izumi, Maria-san, Ayumu... I'm dead shot in the middle of it. Hayate-kun wouldn't notice me with all those girls after him. And with Athena too..." Hina said, wiping off her tears. "Now, I think you owe me an explanation as well."

"Um, well..." Nodoka began, recalling all those crazy times with Negi and the rest of the class. "Negi-sensei is the one I like, to tell you the truth."

"You like your teacher?" Hina asked. "That's nothing unheard of, but-"

"Let me finish." Nodoka interrupted her. "Negi-sensei is only... ten years old. Yes, I know that's weird too, but please... he's saved me more times than I recall, and I've got him out of a tight spot too. Negi-sensei is much better than any other man I've met over the years, and I've never been too good with boys anyhow."

"So you like him... due to that he saved your life?" Hina asked her, and she received a nod. "Phew... I guess that makes sense. But wait, let me guess: You're not the only one after him, right?" Hina asked the mage.

"Well, there are a few after him... I found out later that my best friend Yue is also in love with Negi-sensei... and then there's the class representative, Kakizaki-san, Makie-san, Ako-san, Chachamaru-san... I think I'm in a more sticky situation than you, Hina."

"Yeah, you're right." Hina responded to that. Unbeknownst to them, there was someone outside the door.

Ashracai had been listening in on their chat between each other, and he was feeling something for their situation. _Maybe I should disregard what the Emperor said about keeping them here... _"But you know something?" Nodoka said to Hina, catching also their new father's attention. "I would like to see the sun up there. It's all gloomy and dark down here. I really would like to see how the surface is here."

This left the arch-mage pondering and then he left their door alone. _I believe I need to make a few calls..._

_**Down at Ostia**_

"Fine, have it your way, then!" Aristodemus said into the cell phone before he shut the call. "Stupid Americans. I tell them an international crisis is on the way, they refuse to give clearance because it isn't a threat to National security. Can you believe that?" He asked Godel, who was walking next to him at a fast pace.

"Is the US government always like that?" The Governor-general asked the Commander.

"Ever since it became a Nationalistic country supporting non-democratic regions all in the name of democracy, and invading a country filled to the brims with oil whilst their oil resources are low, in the name of fighting terrorism... Yeah, it is. Sometimes I forget that it's the Bush Administration running the country now. God, I hope he doesn't get reelected." Aris complained at the notion.

"Whoa, you are good." Godel was for once impressed by the shorter man's credibility. "I'm surprised you were able to stay in power for that long."

"This isn't my first rodeo with a tough government, Kurt. I know what I'm doing. Ever since I became immortal, I had to learn all about politics and you wanna know something about it?"

"What?"

"You begin to hate politics once you know how it works."

"Fair enough." Godel shook his head at the notion. "I've been put as one of your sub-commanders. The Senate would like me to stay here and hold up a suitable defense in case the Githyanki does invade the Magic World, but the final word is with you."

"You stay. If anyone knows this place the best, it's you. I've already sent a transfer for an Imperial Fleet to come here in support, and you get a squad of Elite Valkyries as well." Aristodemus halted his strategic talking when Theodora and Rachel came up to their faces, along with Emily's squad of cadets. "Ah, you're here now."

"Took awhile to convince my attendants not to follow, but I managed to get rid of them finally." Theo said, holding a bag of Holding in her hands and being dressed in what suited as Hellas common clothing covered by a cloak.

"These girls on the other hand were reluctant to come with us, but some stern talking afterward, they're in." Rachel reported about the cadets, the girls complaining at her.

"That's fine, I really don't want to hear the full story." Aris said to his batman. "Hello there," he greeted the cadets instead. "I trust you girls are ready to leave for the Old World, yes?"

"We are." Collet answered. "Um, permission to speak freely?"

"I don't see any problem with that, really."

"I for one never expected to work alongside the Strategou himself. Wow! I've read your books, particularly those on weapons' development and military history of the Old World kings. Those are some of my favorites."

"Then we should get along nicely, miss Farendoll." Aris responded back to her. "Now before we continue, there are a few things you need to remember. But first, let us wait for our final member." He put a finger into his ear to activate a commlink. "Alicia, could you get here on my position, please?"

A few seconds later, a massive bulk form landed with a crash behind the two men, taking most of them by surprise. It was the huge armor that they had faced when against Precia and Alicia, as Theo recalled things. It opened up for the little girl to emerge from it.

"Alright, everyone, meet... my granddaughter, Alicia." Aris had to put up with the term granddaughter, since it was the only appropriate term he could use with ease for her. "Say hello, Alicia."

"Hello." Alicia said to them and bowed. The cadets found her very cute and could barely resist petting the girl's head. But they were slightly disturbed that she was piloting such a huge suit.

"Now then, let's begin." Aris procured a box from a chest on wheels and opened it to reveal several sets of earrings and rings. "These are specially made to have you girls look like humans. There are only humans on Earth, and frankly you would stand out looking like that." And whilst the girls were preparing themselves with it, he turned to Godel. "I need you to alert as many Old World governments as you can while you're at it. I will see what I can do too."

"Understood." Godel said, walking away from them.

"Well then, if you girls are all set, we can leave immediately." Aris addressed them as they were done sniggering to each other and decorating themselves with the earrings and rings.

"Wait, how are we getting to the Old World?" Du Chat asked the Spartan.

"Through there." He pointed to the ruins of Old Ostia, which as if through a camera view, went from the faces of the girls, down towards the monster filled ruins, packed with dragons, and an anti magic covering field, before swiftly returning to the girl's faces, twitching and grinning to themselves, thinking the same thing together.

"You're kidding, right?

_**It was not a joke...**_

Fresh air filled her lungs as Nodoka woke up yet again on this alien world. Only this time, she found herself in different circumstances of where she was, yet again. First of all, she found herself in a neat rocking bed that went up and down on the sides, and she had a beautiful silk peach colored nightgown on herself. Secondly, she found in her arms a very... cute plush doll of Negi, stretching out his arms in a motion that just cried out: 'Hug me!'. He was dressed in his usual green suit as well, and whoever made this hadn't left out the little glasses that the young magi tended to wear. And thirdly, was that sunlight that she saw spreading out on her?

"Huh?" The young bookworm said to herself finding herself in this room and holding the little Negi plush. "Where am I? And what is this... cute..." She suddenly squealed as she hugged the little doll closer to herself, and at the same time, Hina (who happened to be sleeping in the same room) woke up to, underneath the sun-filled window. The pink haired girl was wearing an equal looking nightgown like the one Nodoka was wearing, save it was dark green. And she had a little plush doll of Hayate-kun, that seemed the same as the Negi doll.

"Eh? Nodoka?" She asked as she saw the mage hug the little plush toy. "Is that... Negi-kun?" As a response, Nodoka revealed the face of the Negi doll to Hina and almost immediately, the samurai felt an instant urge to hug that thing senseless. (Curse you Negi for being so cute and popular with the ladies!) It was then that she noticed the Hayate plush doll. When she gave it a squeeze to check it, the little doll said "Hug me!" in a chibied version of his own. That was too much for the girl's personal resistance. She just hugged it, tightly.

To be sure, Nodoka gave hers a squeeze and it said the same in Negi's voice. Eventually, the two girls switched theirs to see any difference. "Whoa, we really are childish right now." Hina said, holding the Negi plush.

"Yeah." Nodoka responded, handing back the Hayate plush. "But I guess, after all that happened to us, being stuck on a different planet and being enslaved and tortured... I think we needed this."

"You're right. But how come that we got these? And where are we really?" Hina asked as she returned the Negi plush.

The splash of water outside the window above Hina's bed gave them a rough answer. Looking out the oval window that lay on its broadside, they noted that they were out on open waters. Out to sea. It would seem. In broad daylight. "Is this for real?" Hina said, being astonished by the sight.

"Maybe we should head up to deck and find out more." Nodoka said, stepping away from the window.

"Dressed like this?" Hina referred of course to their nightgowns. "We need to change clothes first." Fortunately, each had their own closet in the room. "Oh, sweet stars above..." Hina's closet was filled with clothes that fitted her size and style. Boy's clothing made of silk, with puffs, and most of it was pearl white, whilst a vest in there was light blue. It seemed that the Githyanki favored bright clothing themselves. Nodoka's on the other hand, had been stuffed with crossing of dresses and outfits for adventure, most being violet in most places on the outfits, along with magenta and brown on the other spots, not majorly, but at least so they could be seen. "Dress up?"

"What are you standing around there for?" Nodoka asked jokingly and the two girls went into a frenzy over the clothes. It didn't take long before they got the outfits that suited their tastes. Nodoka was wearing a neat dress that had actual pants underneath for saving the embarrassment of having your skin revealed when it's shredded. It was of the purple color, along with silver embroiderers of various animals on it, as well as the matching sleeves that went up above the height of her elbows. Her hair was also neatly done with the hair decoration of a flower, its petals the same as those she woke up with when they first came to Tu'narath. (chapter 7, for your memory).

Hinagiku wore boys' clothing, with brown silk pants and white socks ending the bottom part with black Chinese lotus shoes, not that she had bound feet or anything. Her top part, had a neat green silk shirt and the blue vest on. In addition, her hair was done in the same fashion as the Githyanki had, seeming as 97 % of the species had long hair, put in a high ponytail, and set with beads on two locks of hair on the front. The ponytail was decorated with chopstick as well, which according to Githyanki, was the signs of a true (or born) warrior.

When they emerged on deck, they found themselves being aboard a large yacht, or at least something similar to it. It seemed smaller than what they expected, but with magic, what wasn't to be expected? And they were indeed on the open sea, the sun beaming down on them. "Morning girls." Ashracai's voice said them from behind as he was handling the steering wheel and being dressed in his color changing cloak, now with sleeves added to it, being on the inside, rather on the outside like human cloaks. "I trust you had a good night's sleep?"

"I simply must ask. Did you give us those plush toys?" Hina asked of their adoptive father.

"Well, Nodoka said it herself down there: You girls needed it." The Arch-mage answered in response. "Yes, I did. I also pulled a few strings to bring you girls up here. Turned out that there was a loophole in the Emperor's order."

"Which was?"

"My orders are to keep you here. And when He said here, He failed to mention just in the capital city of this planet." Ashracai said, whilst a call from above them drew his attention to the port side. There was someone swimming out there next to the ship. "Who the-? Who is that?"

"Who?" Nodoka asked, seeing as the swimming figure came in closer to them.

"I don't recall that it was safe to swim out on the open sea, with all the sea monsters in these parts." At that time the swimmer grabbed the railing of the deck and climbed aboard with the aid of a sailor. The girls recognized him immediately. He was dripping wet, and he was only swimming trunks along with a bag filled with clothes tied around his neck, but it was him, alright.

"Sergeant Boris Ivanov, at your service, my Lord." Boris saluted the arch-mage. (A/N: He is officially a canon character, not an OC)

"Boris-san!?" Both girls exclaimed at once seeing their friend from the Institution. "What are you doing here?" Hina asked the Russian.

"I was ordered to escort you two here on the surface." Boris reported to the pink haired girl. "I was due to arrive earlier, but the ship left without me before I got to the surface docks on the Gate Island."

"You mean you swam across the entire ocean to catch up with us?!" A Sailor next to him exclaimed very much surprised at the Russian's report. "How come you didn't wait for another ship."

"Orders are absolute. My orders were to go with this ship, so I had to catch up with you." Boris retorted back.

"Orders are-" The arch-mage stammered. "What kind of logic is that?"

"That of a soldier, Sir."

"More of a myrmidon." Ashracai rose up, letting someone else take the steering wheel. "Now, Boris, listen and listen well. Your orders right now and for a time until you receive further orders from me, are to protect Hinagiku and Nodoka. You will follow their orders under this period and protect them at all costs. And remember this, sergeant: It is not what kind of orders you are following, it is _how _you follow them. You need to think on your own for this. Understood?"

"Yes Sir." Boris saluted the arch-mage and bowed to the girls next to him. "I look forward to be with you two, Katsura-san, Miyazaki-san."

"Er... Glad to have you aboard again, Boris-san." Nodoka said to the big Russian.

* * *

It didn't take long (about a day) until they reached a town. This was a Githyanki town (whoa, didn't see that one coming), bustling with activity and citizens unloading goods from docking ships. It was a fairly large city. "Welcome to the town of G'zen, children." Ashracai told the humans as they set off into the market. "I have a palace here in town, where we will be staying. You can always go out on journeys from here, but do make sure that you come back, alright?"

"Yes, Dad." Both girls responded back at him. Around halfway to the palace, a large castle growing bigger as they came closer, the bookworm of their troop noticed a female githyanki sitting by a table, with a deck of cards on. She seemed hungry and without any customers (she assumed), so Nodoka went closer for having a look.

"Come to have your future foretold, young lady?" The apparent soothsayer asked the bookworm and the arch-mage caught that question by ear.

"Oh, sorry, I couldn't resist seeing this booth." Nodoka apologized to the soothsayer as Ashracai came in closer.

"A soothsayer." The father caught the bookworm by surprise. "Wait, I recognize your face, lady... You're one of the best soothsayers on the surface. You had a store last time I was here."

"Yes, but then someone died of a heart attack after I told him he was going to die of a heart attack. Then his family sued me for millions." The soothsayer said, as her stomach growled. "Now I do small time business to keep from starving to death."

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a go at this." Ashracai said, with Boris and Hina joining in on them. "Go ahead, soothsayer."

The fortune teller began to shuffle her cards about very skillfully and then holding them out to Nodoka. "It goes like this: I shuffle the cards and then you pull out five cards of your choosing to put on the table." She instructed the bookworm. Nodoka took out five illustrated cards from the deck: A King and a Queen facing one another, a white glowing sword on a black background, a gem encrusted scepter surrounded by red beasts breathing fire, a golden glowing crown against an Imperial Purple background and finally a figure glowing bright white in the sky and holding a sword, whilst below the beautiful person was a hideous one with snakes for hair and holding a wand. "Oh my..." the soothsayer said, looking at the cards.

"What?" Nodoka wondered.

"I-i don't understand. My predictions have always been accurate and have always come true, but for something like this..." The soothsayer went very pale at this whilst Ashracai inspected the cards himself.

"Are you sure that your predictions have always come true?"

"Absolutely, my Lord. I have always kept a strict register on my customers in the past, and all of them has come true."

"Then that is not a good thing." The arch-mage sounded very serious. "Come on, we're no longer walking to the palace." He told the humans. A snap of his fingers, and they were gone in a bright flash.

_**In Japan**_

If a single word could be said about their training right now, it would be _Brutal_. Straight after coming back home, the girls had been exposed to a vicious exercise designed by both Eva and Fate. The vampire was going to train Negi on her own in the usage of swords for once, but the girls quickly found themselves at the mercy of Wilhelm, Kagetarou and the construct. And if that was not enough, their magic items granted to them by the Spartan was evidence enough to have them undergo unique training for themselves. Sure, the new members were down to only basic training, but the more experienced? Owie. Asuna getting big rocks thrown at her, Setsuna exposed to dangerous grappling techniques that threw her always down to the floor, Haruna and Yue being bombarded by more than 100 magic arrows, on more than one occasion, as a few examples.

What's more, they had to endure it all the time when they weren't obligated to go to clubs. There was something about this that didn't seem right. At least some of them had noticed it. There was something driving on the Cosmo Entelecheia, the girls and Fate Averruncus. Something that kept them going. Although Averruncus wasn't training, if he needed any, his partners, especially Koyomi, were pushing themselves, almost to the extent of Negi. They wouldn't tell anyone, but at times, Asuna and Kazumi noticed them being in some sort of depression from time to time.

"Ooof, another day, another hell." Asuna said, once they were relaxing in the castle's hot spring.

"We got lucky this time." Setsuna said, scrubbing her own back. If Konoka got hold of that, God knows how the heat might turn up. "I do hear that we get a day off for a holiday that's coming up.

"Which one?" Asuna asked the swordswoman.

"I think it was on February 14th. Can't really remember what's so special about it." Setsuna suddenly found her being stared at by the girls in class. "What?"

"Oooh, Set-chan doesn't know the date!" Someone called teasingly. It was probably Haruna.

"What?" Setsuna asked completely honest.

"Basically, it's Valentine's Day." Mana answered her. "It's that day of the year when girls give away chocolate to the boys they like. But given that you're married to her, you might want to hide from Konoka for a while."

"But that would explain all those chocolate boxes I've gotten over last two years." Setsuna said to herself, putting a hand on her chin. Again, she got stares at herself. "What? I thought those were just gifts from friends."

"No wonder..." Mana said to herself.

"Hey guys, it just came to me." Yuuna said, gaining the attention to herself now. "Since these Githyanki guys are here, what are the odds of them delivering packages here as well?" A few blank stares came to her. "Hey, it's just a guess."

"Well then, how about this? I bet the next three meals we use meal tickets on, that Honya-chan would be able to make a Valentine's Day delivery here to Earth before the end of February 14th?" Sakurako suddenly spoke up at that notion.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Mana said, jumping in the bath. "But you're on." The two girls connected fists to seal the bet. "You others are witnesses."

_**Back at Ashracai's palace**_

A messenger came to the palace two days after the four of them had arrived there since the arch-mage had teleported them. For the next two days, messengers had been sent out to several places unknown to the humans. All Ashracai answered them was: 'You'll see.'

Meanwhile, Ashracai was showing the humans a map over the area they were in. "Now, the town of G'zen is located here by the sea. It's most south-western city in the whole of Samasal, the Great Kingdom we are in right now."

"Great Kingdom?" Hina asked confused.

"Well, we have a different way of running things here. A Great Kingdom is essentially a collection of kingdoms and realms that house our four races. We encounter humans everywhere we go, so they have their kingdoms here as well. We like to have a good battle on us all the time. I blame it on the Emperor. We're right now in Samasal, one of the more powerful Great Kingdoms on Tu'narath."

"How big is Tu'narath really?"

"Roughly four times the size of Earth." Ashracai answered that question. "But enough of that. What really matters right now is that this doesn't get out fast."

"You mean that incident with the fortune telling?" Nodoka asked the arch-mage.

"Yes." He answered before the messenger arrived in the same room. "And now we'll see. Did you do as I asked you to?"

"Yes, my Lord. We did visit the various places you told us to."

"And how many of them were in collaboration with the one shown here in G'zen?" Ashracai asked of the messenger.

"Well, frankly my Lord, none of them had even heard of each other, and the result is staggering." The Messenger procured a scroll for the arch-mage to see. "And may I be so bold to point that you did tell us to be thorough."

"I did." Ashracai responded as he read through the scroll. But as he read through it, his face went more and more pale. When he reached the bottom of it, he dropped the scroll and just stood there quiet. The messenger took this as an opportunity to leave. The humans went over to the 'frozen' magi and tried to have a look at the scroll themselves.

"I can't read this." Hina said, as she had discovered just then that the symbols were native Githyanki. Somehow, the mage had enough control to grant her a pair of special glasses. Putting them on, the pink haired girl found a list of several divination methods: by blades, by knives, by fire, by tree bark, to name a few. Wait, was that lettuce sacrifice she saw just then? "What is this?"

"I think I need to explain fully." Ashracai said finally, and at the same time in another but less bright flash, the soothsayer from before was standing among them as well.

* * *

Some time later, they were sitting by a round table, with the soothsayer and Ashracai sitting next to one another with Nodoka stuck in between them. Hina and Boris were sitting in front of her, having moved the chairs to the inside of the table so they could be near the bookworm. The soothsayer was going through her card deck to look for the cards that Nodoka drew earlier. The first card that came was the one with the King and Queen facing each other. "From what we know of these cards, they are direct, and rarely get wrong. This card is often called the 'Tyrant and Liberator'. It means basically that you will be defeating a tyrant somewhere in this Great Kingdom. I just hope it doesn't mean any specific ruler."

"Wait, so Nodoka will liberate a country from a tyrant's grip?" Hina asked completely doubtful of this.

"We'll see. It can also mean that she'll defeat a king who's neglected his duties of being king." Ashracai responded. The soothsayer procured the white sword on the black background now. "Now this means, that you'll be needing this sword before you can liberate the country."

"How will that be of any use to me anyway?" Nodoka asked this time. "I'm not good with a blade. And why would I need a sword?"

"Well, the sword has often been a weapon of great importance." The arch-mage responded at her. "Take a closer look at the background, you'll see small outlining drawn around the white sword." Hina took a closer look and saw that the white sword was surrounded by scores of black swords. "Naturally, this also means that this is a special sword, forged for your hand alone."

The soothsayer took out the scepter card now. "That is not all. This card says that you'll be needing this scepter as well. One that can summon fire-breathing beasts to your side as well."

"But there's only one scepter that can do that, and that's-" Ashracai halted himself there, and he went _very _pale. "Now that isn't a good sign."

"What?" All three humans asked him. If such a powerful magi of a mighty race that had already quelled scores of worlds was pale over hearing such a thing, well you probably know how much shit that it.

"A little bit of history for you kids. We Githyanki have not always been like this, serving an Emperor." The arch-mage started off on a large history. "Ages ago, we served an adjutant of the founder of our race, Gith Herself. Her adjutant was named Vlaaktih. According to tradition, that name was carried on to every ruler of the Githyanki. Now one of them, Vlaakith the 157th of them, turned herself into a lich, an undead magic user. She sustained herself by absorbing the souls of those who grew too powerful, especially those who had the power to open at least one interdimensional gate that we used to attack countries and worlds. She quickly gained the title, Lich-queen."

"And what does that have to do with the scepter on the card?" Hina asked about the main theme.

"Gith... didn't really die when we lost her. She had traveled to the domain of another great being, namely the Dragon Lady, and she pledged her service to the great Queen in exchange for that her kin would aid us wherever we went. For this, Vlaakith I was granted a special scepter, which allowed her to summon those kin."

"And?"

"That Queen, was Tiamat Herself. The Patron Goddess of us Githyanki. So that is what is depicted on the card. The Scepter of Tiamat Herself, which can summon red dragons to the wielder's side. Quite an awe-inspiring power, wouldn't you agree?" Ashracai asked the whole lot of them. "The reason I went pale is because the scepter was last seen in the Lich-queen's possession."

"Meaning we would have to encounter her and get the scepter so that we could free this country?"

"Basically, yes." The arch-mage answered them. "Mind you, I am _this close_ from banging my head against a pillar right now." To bring home the point, he held up his hand to have a small space between his fingers to show how little resistance he had left against his urge. It was not very much.

The soothsayer procured the card with the crown on. "Now this got me most worried of all." She said as Ashracai sat down again, since he had risen up from the table to explain the whole history of the Githyanki.

"The 'High Crown'? But that would mean that we're facing a major tyrant."

"Who?"

"You see, we have color coordination here on the surface to keep the Monarchs separated from each other. There are steel crowns for the Lords of the Githyanki realm, silver crowns for the humans, and then there are the golden crowns for Great Monarchs. That it's a golden Crown on the card doesn't reveal anything to be honest. What matters is the color. Imperial Purple. We have several Great Kingdoms here on the surface, now finding the right one should take a while." Ashracai procured a much larger map and rolled it out to look over it.

"Uh... I don't think it's not going to be a big problem." Hina said, looking right behind her father. Pointing to the banner hanging on the wall, it was Imperial Purple with a Golden Crown behind. Ashracai didn't seem very happy about this.

"Excuse me for a minute, would you?" He said and walked away. Some time later, he returned, only he had bandage round his head. "So it is the Great King of Samasal who is the Tyrant. This is not a good thing at all."

"True that may be..." Boris retorted. "But there is the fifth card to consider as well."

"Yes, that one. I don't remember the name, but it means that you'll be having an encounter during the quest as well." Ashracai pointed to the final card, the one depicting the figures. "The first one, is a sword-wielder, and what can you tell from the bright light that surrounds him or her?"

"Good." Hina started. "Righteous. Noble."

"Strong. Firm at his behest." Boris added.

"Look where the person is placed on the card." The arch-mage drew their attention to that.

"Um..." Hina wondered for a while. "...Divine?" She asked finally.

"Correct. We are dealing with a sword-wielder of divine descent here." Ashracai continued. "The divinely descended are usually benign, and friendly. But in the company of someone as... ugly as that other person, means that we'll be facing them in combat."

"And what does the snake haired person mean?"

"All I can recall right now, is something called a gorgon. If you know more, then tell me." Ashracai said to them.

"A gorgon is someone who can turn people to stone." Boris answered. "They are also very powerful magic users, if I understand things correctly."

"So we're going to face a swordmaster descended from gods and a magic user who can turn people to stone?" Hina said, as Nodoka had apparently fainted at all this information. "I'm really starting to hate this now."

"Care for a date with a pillar?" Ashracai asked her.

"No thanks."

"Well, things are just starting right now." Ashracai said, rising up again. "I will go seek out the best smith there is to get Nodoka that sword, whilst you're staying here in town. Soothsayer, I trust you can keep your mouth sealed about this? I have finances if that is what you want in exchange."

"Why thank you, my Lord. And no need, I can get back on my feet on my own, thank you. Unless I get sued again." the fortune teller said, and left the room.

"Now then, I'll make a quick jump to Earth to see if I can find anyone there. Care for me to do something for you whilst I'm there?" Ashracai asked the humans.

"Well, you could make a delivery for us." Hina spoke up. "Since we're caught up in this adventure to defeat the Great King of Samasal, we can't leave Tu'narath. But let us to the kitchen, and we'll make something for you to deliver."

"Why's that, I might ask?" The Arch-mage wished to know of them.

"Because in a few days, if I've done my math correct and I'm on the right date since from when we were abducted, it's going to be-"

**A/N: Cut! I really wanted to add a final bit, but due to plot revelations, things will continue in the next chapter. Plus, this is more fun. You'll see Negi in the next chap, I promise. Now as for those who I sent sheets, can start sending them in to me. If you aren't done, then tell me and I might be able to help you with whatever it is you need help, if. Finally, I would like to remind you that this is a multi crossover story to begin with, since I also want to show that it's all about the Negima world. A little late, but Happy New Year to you all.**


	28. Valentine's Enemy, wait, that came wrong

**A/N: Let's set off. I will inform you of the crossover characters since not everyone knows about them. This will also start off with the ever popular Valentine's Day section. Even if it is a bit too early right now, but in the plot... I just can't resist. Now let's be off before a kid calls me a cheese hater again!**

* * *

"Negi-kun!" Makie called out for the young teacher, holding a small box of chocolate. "Negi-kun! Where are you?"

For those who wonder, it is after classes and as soon as they had free period, the young magi had taken off fast enough to outrun the blast of a nuclear explosion. Even his slippers for indoors had been left behind. The reason he did that, was because almost everyone in the class (save Setsuna, Chisame, Eva & Asuna) was holding Valentine's Day Chocolates, which they had made themselves. Well, not everyone had made them for just him, which is why Setsuna vanished as well. Konoka did try to ambush her in the classroom, but let's just say that she didn't really hide it.

"Negi-kun!" Yuuna called out as well, looking around for the teacher. "Damn! He hid himself good."

"Set-chan!" Konoka called, holding a bento filled with chocolate covered with cute sprinkles. "Come on, let's have some chocolate together!"

"Konoka!" Makie called to the healer. "Have you seen Negi-kun?"

"Have you seen Set-chan?"

"No I haven't. Do you think they could have hid themselves together?" Makie thought to herself and for some bizarre reason, Ayaka showed up at that time.

"What did you say!?" The class representative demanded of the gymnast. "Who knows what those two could do if alone together?"

"Would you cut that out?" Konoka asked of the blonde. The brunette was for once having a fume above her. "As much as you think about that, Set-chan and I are married! Why would she cheat like that?"

"Wait..." Yuuna asked of the healer. "Are you jealous or something?" A sudden glare of _**DOOM**_shot at her from the most unlikely person on Earth made her change her mind rather quickly. "Er, never mind."

"Don't suppose you have seen Negi-sensei, have you?" Takane came along, and with Mei who was the one carrying chocolate. "Mei needs to say something to him."

Meanwhile, two persons were lying on the roof of the school. Negi and Setsuna found this a good hiding place from everybody in the class. Not only that, but things wasn't helped with Takahata showing up there some time later, only to leave again. "So..." Negi started as the two were hiding together. "...how come you are hiding as well, Setsuna?"

"Truthfully?" Setsuna responded. "I get a lot of chocolate gifts this time of the year, and I really don't want Kono-chan to find out."

"Why not?"

"I just figured something out." Setsuna told the young magi. "I am... very popular with some girls. It's my personality, my behavior, and that I best people bigger than myself. The fact that it's an all girl-school makes it even worse for me. Girls don't get to meet many boys, so they turn to someone who is way better than the boys."

"You?"

"Exactly. I act like a boy, and I have done things only boys would consider doing. I have also helped a few girls from being abused by older guys, so... you know what that's like."

"Yes, I certainly know that part." Negi said, scratching an itch on his right hand. "Your turn."

"Do you still feel down?" Setsuna asked him. When the young magi didn't answer, she continued. "It's almost been a month since Nodoka-san was taken."

"Oh... Yes, I still feel down about it." Negi responded to her. "It feels, terrible to not know how it goes for her right now. All we know is that she's alive, she's under the protection of someone powerful. More than that, we don't know."

"And it never occurred to you why they took just her and not somebody else?"

"No, not at all." Negi responded. "Although... now that I think about it... Do you think it have to do with her artifact?"

"Could be. She does have one of the more... dangerous artifacts in our group. So it would make sense there." The swordswoman reckoned, looking back at a few times. "Overall, do you like this plan?"

"You mean the one where we have to work together with Fate and save the world from a possible alien invasion?" Negi said rather sarcastic at her. "Yeah, I'm just peachy with it."

"I'll be going. Someone asked me yesterday to lend a hand with something that should be done today." Setsuna rose up. "After that, I guess I'll take my chances with my own wife."

"See you later then." Negi waved a hand and the hanyou was gone in a swift breeze. Now that he was alone, he had some time to think. A lot was on his plate right now. Nodoka gone, items with no explanation left for him, a new master shown to be an ally (at some degree), and also Fate working together with him to fight back these Githyanki guys and win Nodoka back. _I_ _guess I'll go meet the others. I'd rather take my chances with them instead of that fan-club I discovered when we got back... _But before he could get anywhere, someone small had just sat himself (or herself) on his back. _...Stercus!_

_**Two days before Valentine's, on Tu'narath**_

Things just got up better for our little trio of humans stuck on a different world. A message for them had just arrived. And it wasn't from just anybody. Guess who?

_Good humans_

_By the time you are reading this, I have gained my interest about you,_

_and I would like to see you here at my Capital._

_If unable to comply, the messengers have been ordered to_

_drag you here in chains if need be._

_I look forward to be seeing you._

_Ifrith, Great King of Samasal_

Yeah, things had just gotten better for them. "Could you excuse us for a minute? We need to talk this through." Hina asked the soldier-messengers gently. One of them nodded at her and the humans along with Ashracai formed a small group discussion. "I got a really bad feeling about this. Can we trust him?"

"Well, an invitation like this," Ashracai pointed out. "is really basic here. But at least he won't try to kill us for this."

"Why not?"

"Because if he wanted us dead, he wouldn't have bothered to send a message in the first place." Ashracai said.

"Point taken." Hina said. "What should we do?"

"I think we need to go." Nodoka said. "See it as a chance to see who he is, know what he's like and see if he'll keep true to his word."

"Recognition and identification of an enemy before commencing battle." Boris summarized it all. "A good tactic as always."'

"Agreed." The Arch-mage said and they came back to the messengers. "We'll comply. Just let us get our mounts." Naturally, the second-in-command of the whole Imperium was not to be argued, so the messengers had to let them through to the palace's stables. "I got these great beasts from Earth. Figured they might be better than what we have right now here on this planet." Upon reaching the stables of the place, he pulled forward the riding animals they were to ride.

"Horses?" Hina said, getting a heavy feel of nostalgia and walked up to a beautiful white one with a blonde mane. "You brought horses back from Earth?"

"I tried them out whilst I was on Earth myself. Magnificent beasts, they are." The arch-mage said, getting up on his choice of horse, a grey and black-spotted one with a grey mane. "With these, we might actually reach Ifrith faster than one of the beasts that the people ride here normally."

"At least we got something to remember our home by." Nodoka said and climbed up a brown one. But having not been on a horse before, she ended up facing the wrong way. "Um, I did wrong there..." She quickly adjusted herself on the horse saddle. Boris climbed up on another brown one quite easily and the group set off with the messengers in front of them, apparently riding large... sheep. Very large sheep with huge horns. And they could easily carry the soldiers' weight.

* * *

Two days later, they found themselves staring at the large city of Samaliasal. It was a huge bustling city, filled with people going on about their lives, surrounding a magnificently built castle, so large it could serve as a home to the mightiest of dragons. In broad daylight, the city was in full view to be seen and the people came staring at them as the group of four rode in to the castle, seeing as they had never seen a horse before. And arriving at the castle entrance, they were greeted by a good amount of what seemed like Githyanki knights. Riding large elk bulls dressed in scale armor fitted for them, the knights were wearing plate armor similar to old Roman designs back on Earth. They even had the helmets done like the Roman helmets. They had their swords drawn to salute the new arrivals as they dismounted to walk up the stairs to the main hall.

The four of them found themselves in the main hall of the castle, filled with the members of the court looking at them from their tables as they walked their way up to the primary table where they could find the Great King himself. Ifrith rose up when they approached him and he was not a weakling by his race's standards. He was very muscular in person, as he was bare-chested with a sash of golden silk across his torso. He was also light-skinned, in comparison to the surface Githyanki, which had a more orange or dark green tone to their skin. He had his hair in the same style as Hina had at the moment as well, it being crimson red just like the rest of the species. He also had a large golden medallion around his neck, adorned with markings of dragons (awfully popular, aren't they?). Finally, he wore a special state crown made of nacre, and adorned with emeralds and amethysts.

"Ah... greetings." He welcomed them, but he seemed to be addressing Ashracai. "It is good to see you again, Lord Ashracai. How rare for you to come up to the surface again."

"I felt for a nip of fresh air." The arch-mage greeted him back. "Besides, I thought my two latest daughters could do with some sunlight as well."

"And I can see them." Ifrith said, taking in a good look at the three humans. "I bid you welcome to Samaliasal, my ladies. I trust you will find your stay here on the surface refreshing." In courtly response, Hina bowed gently at him, whilst Nodoka curtseyed before the Great King, seeing how dressed she was. Boris made a military salute at him, the Russian style. And Ifrith nodded at him. "And who is this strong fellow with the muscled body of a Hobgoblin?"

"He is Boris Ivanov, from the same world as Hinagiku," Ashracai said, Hina nodding at the sound of her name, "and Nodoka," Nodoka did the same gesture, "yet he is not from the same part of their planet. He is military trained and a sound believer in that orders should be followed to the letter, no matter what orders they are."

Ifrith chuckled at the idea. "I like him already. Tell me, Boris... Have you ever killed someone?"

"I have." Boris answered immediately, surprising the girls really.

"Really now?" Ifrith sounded genuinely surprised. "I hear that the humans down on Earth shoots down their opponents rather than meet them head on." To this, many members of the court, both male and female, sounded disapproving. It seems that Githyanki likes to meet enemies in close quarters. "Are you one such soldier, or are you some secret soldier?"

"I have never wielded a firearm, Your Majesty." Boris answered him. "I am, as you would say, a secret soldier, preferring the unarmed fighting style." To this response, the court members praised his honesty, applauding him.

"Well, you may sound impressive yourself, Boris, but I was more willing to speak to one of Lord Ashracai's latest daughters." Ifrith turned his attention to them. "I heard that one of you ladies gained a small prophecy whilst visiting the surface. Which of you would that be?"

"That, would be me." Nodoka spoke up, and stepping forward for the Great King to see her.

"Ah, lady Nodoka. Perhaps we should speak more in private regarding it. I am excellent in interpretation of such things and also we can learn more about each other?" He asked her gently.

"I'd like that, of course." Nodoka responded of course, holding her Pactio card concealed in her right hand, underneath her demon ring, whilst she also had her ring wand to cast spells with ready. _You're going to have trust me,_ She sent that thought directed at her father, who looked a bit nervous at her going with Ifrith to another room.

_**Oh look! Setsuna's been caught!**_

"Sakurazaki-san!" One of the swordswoman's fans cried as she handed her quite the amount of valentine's chocolates to Setsuna. "Please accept these!"

"Um, thank you..." Setsuna said nervously, as she was being surrounded by members of her fan-club, those girls who had a definite crush on her. "I'm sorry, but I really ought to be going..."

"Please stay here, Sakurazaki-san!" Another one pleaded to her behavior as a... gentlewoman. "You really don't have someone else on your mind, do you?"

"EH?! You got someone else!?" Another standing next to the first one cried out.

"No way! Sakurazaki-san isn't like that!"

"Actually, I really do have one, but..." She couldn't really concentrate when someone who was watching started to laugh over it. "Oh, shut it, will you!?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I really am." The old man stepped out of his Japanese built simple house to sit on the porch. "It's just that this is a surprise for someone who has a sacred duty to follow."

"Speaking of surprises, I was stunned to find you here, Aristodemus-san." Setsuna addressed the Spartan, who had arrived only a day ago and built this house in a matter of minutes. "What brings you here, really?"

"Why, I have yet to talk to the dean about this, but I suppose it could wait." Aristodemus said, holding a hammer in his left hand, whilst crossing his arms, and having a tong in his mouth, loose enough for him to talk. "By the way, I'm done with the order by now, so you're off my hook at least. Go look for Konoka, would you?"

"Eh?! So you do have someone, Sakurazaki-san!" A fan-girl cried as Setsuna tried to leave.

"Course, she has someone." Aris said, as he rose up again to walk into his house. "Now let her leave, so she could go see her girlfriend."

"You did that on purpose!" Setsuna lost her temper and shouted at the fleeing Spartan. She sighed and tried to get out of the group, only to run into Konoka, who happened to be there out of sheer coincidence. "Ah... Kono-" Konoka didn't say anything but turned and walked away briskly, turning her head down. "Argh!" Setsuna took that as a very bad sign and got loose, losing all the chocolates she got from the fan-girls and ran after Konoka. "Konoka! Wait up!"

The fan-girls looked at the two fleeing figures and felt rather bad. "We did something really bad, didn't we?"

"I think we did."

"Dump all of this in her room as usual?"

"Sure."

_**Er, let's see how Negi has it...**_

"Um... Could you get off me, please?" Negi asked whoever it was who sat on his back gently. He had managed to confirm that it was a girl, because he could actually feel that she was wearing silk panties. (Don't ask how he knows that one) She didn't say anything but put her hands in his hair and ruffled it gently. "Okay, you really don't want me to leave, do you?" He asked this time. She moved forward, lying down fully on him and put her arms around him, as to give him a hug as she lay there on him. _I'm not liking this..._ Negi thought as the two of them lay there on the roof, no one to disturb them. Frankly he wished for someone to find them, even if it was Ayaka, or Eva, or even Chachamaru.

"Um, this is really nice and all, but I've heard it works best when the other party knows who you are." Negi pleaded to that side of this really quiet girl. She still didn't say anything, so Negi figured that she was playing the whole Quiet Girl tactic to get him to find out. "Er, how about a game? I guess who you are and why you do this. One tap is yes, two taps is no. Okay?"

One tap answered him.

"Okay. Um...I'm just gonna guess really. Fuuka-san after a shopping trip?"

Two taps came.

"Fumika-san after a shopping trip?"

_Tap, tap._

"Er... Yue-san?"

_Tap, tap._

"You're not from my class of girls, are you?"

_Tap, tap._

"But you are going in this school, yes?"

_Tap, tap-tap._

"Three taps?" Negi was surprised. "You mean you don't know yet?"

_Tap, tap._

"Oh. Um... you're not part of my fan-club, are you?" Negi had to make sure of that fact at least. Last time they met, it was horrible.

_Tap, tap._

Negi let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "But you are a fan of mine, yes?" It was not that he took pride in that notion.

_Tap._

_Okay, now let me see. She's not a girl from my class, she's not going to this school, she's a fan of me, obviously with a crush on me as well, so she is someone I've met before... _"Koyomi-san?" There were some time, as the girl rose from her lying position on him, but she still sat on him. Eventually, two taps came, but they were hit on the back of his head. "I made you a bit angry there?"

_Tap._ That came on his head again.

"I'm sorry, really, really sorry." Negi apologized to her, putting his hands in a praying position for her to see. "Is there some way for me to repay you?"

She held out a box of Valentine's chocolate in front of his face, and he understood very quickly. "You want me to be your Valentine, right?"

_Tap._

_StercusStercusStercusStercus! _Negi thought to himself right now. The young magi had just gotten himself into a situation where no independent or freedom loving guy wants to be in. It made things even worse with someone actually watching them.

"Of all the things I thought of what was going on with you, Negi, I never expected this." Asuna said catching him by surprise. She didn't stand on the roof, but she was hanging on to the edge of the roof, her feet on the building's wall, whilst she had crossed her arms to hold on to the edge. And she was right in front of him.

"Asuna!" Negi took hold of her arms to make sure she stayed. "Help me here! She won't let me go...!"

"So would 95% of the girl population here as well." Asuna retorted with a grin. "You sure you want to get loose from her?" She asked and he nodded ferociously. "A cute girl like her? Are you sick or something?"

"I'm not sick, I just don't want to get into any trouble. I can't even tell who she is." Negi complained to his aunt.

"Have you tried guessing?" Asuna asked him. _Tap._ "I take it that means yes?" The girl gave the redhead a nod. "How much do you know about her, Negi?"

"I know that she's not from our class, she's not going to this school, I know I've met her before, and she's got a crush on me apparently." Negi answered her.

"You tried Koyomi-chan?"

_Tap, tap. _Those two came on Negi's head yet again. "That would be a no."

"Um, okay..." Asuna said and then looked at the girl sitting on Negi. "You know who she is."

"I don't."

"Yes, you do. You just didn't think of her to begin with." Asuna retorted, giving her nephew even more confusion. "Come on, Negi, you said it yourself, you've met her before. It's just that she wasn't here to start with when you first met her."

"Wait..." Negi thought to himself for a minute and then it hit him who this girl was. "...Alicia-san?" The response was one single beep on his nose. Next thing he knew, Negi had fainted.

_**Back to the Bookworm, then**_

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Ifrith was referring of course to the very throne of Samasal. Nodoka couldn't really help staring at the impressive throne made of black and white Onyx, it having the symbol pf Tiamat above the sitter's head, a five headed dragon soaring in the skies, each of a different color: Red, green, white, blue and black. Tiamat was the goddess of monarchs for the Githyanki, so that was no surprise there. The throne stood on top of a small altar with a stair going up to it, with another throne made of Obsidian down below, possibly for the one directly below the Great Monarch. "Would you like to have a try in it?" He asked the bookworm, extending one of his hands to her.

"Well, one try wouldn't hurt, I suppose." Nodoka answered, took his hand and let herself be led up to the royal seat. _He definitely knows about the prophecy's true meaning... Otherwise he wouldn't do this._ Nodoka thought to herself as she finally reached the throne and took her seat upon it. The view was breathtaking. She could see the whole room from there, giving one the impression that they really were someone of high importance.

"Not a bad view, right?" Ifrith asked standing next to the throne and looking the same direction as she did. "I was stunned when the Emperor first crowned me Great King of Samasal. All the monarchs and lords of the time had a huge amount of respect for me back then. I felt that I would reign forever at that time." He walked down the stairs to walk on the floor.

"Until now." Nodoka countered, getting up from the throne. "You don't even bother to hide it, Ifrith-sama. You know of the full meaning of that prophecy I got." She accused him whilst his back was turned to her. He could only smile from her brilliance.

"You catch on very quickly, little girl." He turned back to her. "I got spies everywhere in the Githyanki realms, and G'zen was a natural place for me to keep an eye on. And I really was surprised when I heard of someone being appointed by prophecy to success me. And look what I get; A young human girl, somehow able to use magic. The thought is almost ridiculous."

"The one that I can actually become Great Queen?" Nodoka asked the current monarch, stepping down the stairs. "I'm not really fond of it myself, but that's what's being said that I'm to do."

"True." Ifrith countered. "Politics aside, you would make a wonderful Queen, even if it would be a short reign. You would spark change in the Imperium, something that we actually encourage. But taking in politics, you would be awful in the eyes of the other Great Monarchs. I believe that the Emperor would find it revolting as well. What would you do really to make a huge change?"

"Apart from being the first non-Githyanki being crowned Monarch?" Nodoka pointed out for him. "Depends on how you have run things, to be honest with you." She stepped close to him, knowing that he had no weapon at the moment. "But what would matter really is that you could get a full uprising from the humans that do live here, demanding that they be treated with more respect due to my arrival."

"And I wouldn't really want that." Ifrith said quite annoyed. "But given that Ashracai is in the room next to this one," He advanced on her, making Nodoka step back, finding the stairs and went up them, the Great King following suite. "And two exceptional fighters as well, I can't touch you right now. As you are also probably under the Emperor's personal protection. So I will not try to get you off the map." Nodoka was standing right in front of the Throne right now as he was getting closer. "But let me tell you this: If you want to continue to sit there," He pushed her on to the Throne. "You're gonna have to fulfill the three requirements first: Get the sword, claim the Scepter for yourself, and face the encounter with this... gorgon and the divine sword wielder. I'm sure that it says you must fulfill those before getting the Throne."

"I can certainly get those things done before I return here." Nodoka countered, being let up again by the King. "Even if I don't want to become Queen, it certainly would feel a lot better if it prevented you from continuing ruling."

"Perhaps. You might want to eat up those words, should you find yourself to be Great Queen." Ifrith said, letting her get down from the altar and walking back to the other room where her friends were. "And Nodoka." His tone caught her attention this time and she turned back to him. "I have one last requirement for you. If you're going to become Queen, you're going to have to earn it first."

"I see. I was expecting that to come out sooner or later." Nodoka retorted.

"It's war then." Ifrith said. The human left the room, leaving the Great King alone, sitting down on his Throne, which could be hers if she did her things correctly.

_**Back to Earth (temporarily)**_

The two magi ended up before a simple Japanese house, in the middle of a forest. A path leading towards a lot of noise, but that's not where they were going to head anyway. But one of them had to release waste coming from the stomach, and it was going the wrong way. Namely up, not down.

"Eurgh, that was horrible..." Nodoka said as she was finishing up.

"First time I tested it, I threw up as well." Ashracai said, holding two boxes, one being pink with red ribbons, the other purple with yellow ribbons. "You'll get used to it eventually."

"Not soon enough, I fear." The librarian had to tell the truth.

"Anyhow, this is where the smith lives right now. He seems to travel a lot." The arch-mage said, still holding the two gift boxes. "He's probably got your sword all done by now."

"Right." Nodoka answered, removing her shoes, since it was a traditional Japanese house. "We're supposed to remove our shoes inside a house like this."

"Oh, no worries, I can always wash it off, anyway." The voice of the house owner said, coming from below. A hatch opened up and one of the most heavily scarred persons Nodoka has ever seen popped up out of there. "Hello there, good Sir and Lady." He greeted them. "Here for your order?"

"We are." Ashracai answered him, "And we're also going to make a small delivery while we're at it."

"Ah, I know. It's Valentine's." The scarred smith said, positioning himself to sit on the edge of the hole he popped up from. "Your gift one of those boxes, young girl?"

"Eh, yes, the purple one." Nodoka answered him, giving a small bow to him.

"Ah, don't bother with that." The smith said. "I'm just gonna finish on the belt. Now then, left or right-handed?"

"Right." Nodoka answered him and the smith jumped down again.

"If having a side blade, would you have it on the hip, the back or the thigh?" The smith called up as some clinking and binding was heard.

"Um..." She thought about it, since this was going to be her first official weapon. "Hip. Why are you asking something like that? I don't recall asking for a side-arm."

"And I didn't order a side-arm to begin with." Ashracai said. "Why are you providing something like that, smith?"

"It's a little something extra I'm throwing in, at no extra cost." The smith answered.

"All you said back then was that you would have the pleasure of having something forged by your hand yet again, and now you're throwing in something extra?"

"Well, you can never have enough weapons on an adventure." The smith said, throwing up a belt with a sword and a dagger set into it, followed shortly by him, dressed in casual Earth clothing. "And you sound like you have doubts about my skills as a smith, mage." He didn't sound very friendly with that tone.

"I don't." Ashracai quickly waved his hands to calm down the well built smith. "I was just taken aback that you made a dagger in addition to the sword as well."

"Like I said, you can never have enough weapons on an adventure." The smith told him. "Now then, you must be curious about the blades. I made them to fit your hands, miss." He inquired of Nodoka.

"Er, yes. I just got them." Nodoka responded whilst trying to get the belt on herself. Some aid with her father later, she turned back to the smith. "I really don't know how they work."

"That's why I'm going to tell you. The sword, I made with the idea that it wouldn't break at all. I had to dig out an ancient recipe of Damascus Steel to get the proper look of the sword, and I made a few enchantments on it as well." He said as Nodoka drew the sword from its scabbard. It had a Galatian Celtic outlook to it's shaft and hilt, being decorated with red jewels on a horseshoe as the sword's pommel. The cross-guard of the hilt reminded one something like an axe, even if it was beautiful. It had wings shaped like feathers to the smallest detail, and the edges of it were sharp to cut someone. "I made the hilt with the idea in mind that the blade is not the only weapon part of a sword. It's safe for you to take hold of the blade and use the hilt as a weapon in case you need to break through heavy armor."

"Er, right." Nodoka said as the blade was further inspected. The blade itself had a double edge, the inside having a pattern welded look to it, whilst the edges had a clear steel or silver form to it, with nothing pattern welded on it. The sword itself was about in overall length about 90 cm long, with the blade taking up 70 cm of that length.

"What sort of enchantments are we talking here, Master Smith?" The arch-mage asked the human.

"Well, first of all, the blade cannot harm her in any way, to begin." The smith said before taking the sword from the bookworm and tried to strike her down with it. Only, it stopped just an inch away from her. "It refuses to strike her down, because it knows it belongs to her. Secondly, it's indestructible. Stepping on it, crushing it under a rock, not even chipping it is going to work. But you'll have to put it in its scabbard as well, young lady."

"Yes, sir." Nodoka put it back in its sheath.

"And then there's your dagger, Miss. It only has one enchantment to it." The smith said as Nodoka pulled a beautifully pattern welded dagger.

"Just one?"

"Oh yes. Telekinesis. Throw it at a target, and it will hit the bullseye. Tell it to hit something you want to hit, and then throw, and then you'll get your wanted result. In close quarters, it will automatically find any weak spot when you try to stab someone wearing armor. Finally, it returns to you, should you want it to."

"Impressive." Ashracai said at this notion. "You truly are a great smith."

"I simply do what people ask of me." The smith responded kindly. "Now then, with all that done, haven't you kids got something else to do? Like, Valentine's delivery?"

"Oh, yes." The arch-mage said, walking out the house. "Come on, Nodoka. We need to get to that Sanzeni'in mansion." He called for the girl, who followed him.

"What about my delivery?"

"I just did that for you." Ashracai said and the purple box was gone from his hands. "There are a lot of things even ESP can do for you." With a snap of fingers, the two of them were gone from plain sight.

_**At the dorms**_

"This really can't be happening..." Asuna said flat-toned as she and a number of girls from 3-A saw as not only had Alicia come to Mahora, but Yue's former squad of Valkyries from the Magic World as well. Along with Rachel and Theodora. "How come you guys are here to begin with!?"

"We were ordered here, really." Theo answered her, holding a chest containing her stuff. "You might want to take it up with the old geezer if you want to know the full story."

"Wait, Aris-san is here as well?" Madoka exclaimed, whilst Yue was being hugged tightly by Collet.

"That's right. Otherwise I wouldn't be here as well." Rachel said in her own, chibi voice which was somewhat creepy. "Don't suppose you know where Negi-chan is, do you?"

"Negi-chan is very busy at the moment, since someone else got to him." Asuna retorted.

"Ah, so that's where Alicia-chan ran off to." Theo figured out on her own, since the little girl had vanished in the midst of preparation of their training place. Mind you, Eva was stunned to find people from the Magic World this far into the Old World. "I always thought she had something of a crush on Negi."

"Speaking of which, Shiina, your bet is starting to run out. It's close to sunset and Miyazaki's gift has yet to show up for Negi-sensei. I think this will be the first time you actually lose a bet." Mana told the cheerleader.

"I still got some time left." Sakurako countered. Reminded about how magic works, Asuna, Mana and Sakurako rushed upwards, on the walls (Asuna carried Sakurako) to get to the room where Negi stayed with Asuna and Konoka. They didn't enter, because he had a guest in there as well. Inside the room...

* * *

"So you got another one, Aniki?" Chamo praised the young magi, being hugged by Alicia (I mean Negi is being hugged), and she wasn't really letting go. "You wanna try the Pactio with her right now?"

"No, Chamo-kun. I don't think Precia-san would approve at this point." Negi said, sitting on the couch. "At least the good thing is, that I managed to avoid the girls with their chocolates today."

Outside the room... "How come you're with us listening in on them, Tatsumiya-san?" Asuna asked the gunslinger.

"I didn't have time to bug the room quickly enough." Mana answered her, standing in the middle of the trio. Inside the room...

"Didn't get away from me, Negi-san." Alicia said in her quiet tone.

"Well, except for Alicia-san." Negi said, getting a tighter hug from her. _I swear, I need to talk to Precia-san about her daughter..._ "By the way, Chamo-kun. Did you also hear about the bet the girls made during a bath break?"

"Oh, yeah, I was there also to boot." Chamo said, as he remembered getting shot and fired at shortly after they had concealed the bet to make. "I got punished for being there, so you have no need to scold me, Aniki."

"Right." Negi said with a flat tone, as the girls outside quickly recalled him being there. "Well, it's been a whole day and nothing from Nodoka-san has showed up yet. Maybe it was a stupid bet to make between them."

_Thump._ That sound came from his attic, getting the attention from all three of them. "Huh?" Negi said, as he went up the ladder to check what it was. It was a purple box with yellow ribbons tied around it. "Now hold on, this could be something." Negi's tone got the girls outside excited. Inside the box, was a chocolate pate with some special sauce covering it. "It's got a note... It really is from Nodoka-san!" That did it for the door, as Asuna, Mana and Sakurako crashed down into the room and frightening Alicia enough for her to jump up and take hold of Negi from the back. "Sigh, hey guys." He greeted the girls who had crashed.

"Er, hi Negi. Got that from Honya-chan?" Asuna asked him, as she was on top of a Cuban girl sandwich.

"Get off me, Kagurazaka." Mana said, trying to get up. "From now on, no more Ben & Jerry's for you."

"Hey." The redhead called back at the sniper.

"Yeah, I got this from Nodoka-san." Negi said, as he held up the note that really had her handwriting on. "I'm actually surprised that she managed to get hers sent here."

"Same here." Asuna answered. "And you lost, Tatsumiya-san. There goes your meal tickets for the next three meals."

"For the entire class." Sakurako piped in.

"I have to pay 900 meal tickets for the next three meals?"

"Actually," Theo piped in, leaning on the door way. "You got another 5 classmates starting tomorrow, so that makes it another 150, if I do my math correct." Mana groaned loudly at that fact.

"What do you mean 5 new classmates?" Asuna asked the Imperial princess. "Wait... The old geezer set this up, didn't he?"

"Well, Collet and the others had to have some kind of disguise whilst being here." Theo said, then noticing the pate Negi was holding. "Whoa, that's some heavy stuff for Valentine's. You're a lucky guy, Negi."

"Thanks." Negi answered her, Alicia still hanging on to him. "Alicia, I'm going to have to remove you if you don't let go." At hearing that, the little girl let go and went down to the other's level.

"Well then, I came here originally to fetch Aris' granddaughter. Come on, Alicia, so we can arrange for your education." Theo called to the little girl, and she followed suit.

_Why do I get this feeling that things are gonna get worse for our part?_ Negi thought as he suddenly realized that the Spartan was here as well. Things certainly didn't look up for them.

_**Final Section, I promise**_

"Declared war, has he, now?" The Emperor asked of his 2nd-in-command as he was doing lift-ups from a pole fixed in an archway. Ashracai had left Nodoka with Hina and Boris, before setting them off on their own journey. The Emperor was of course referring to Ifrith.

"He did. He didn't like the idea of a human taking the Throne from him. And he also proclaimed that neither did you." Ashracai reported to his ruler.

"I don't really mind that fact, since we got an old human Lich as Great King in the neighbouring Great Kingdom." The Emperor responded to him. "What I do mind is actually that Ifrith had her announced shortly after your departure from Samasaliasal. She was proclaimed as the 'Witch of Man', and had messengers send word throughout Samasal. Within days, the whole planet will be aware of her presence." He didn't really sound pleased about that fact.

"I know." Ashracai retorted, sound annoyed at the King's behavior. "And what makes it worse for her is that I can't be following her all the time during this quest. My position would not allow it."

"Which is why I'm going to send Rev'keth to protect her." The Emperor landed on his feet to pour a drink for Himself and His old friend. "He needs some time off from guarding the Palace whilst I've been in here."

"Rev'keth?" Ashracai questioned the Emperor whilst taking his drink. "Wouldn't that also send out the message that you are extending your hand in this civil war?"

"Well, to some, yes." The Emperor responded calmly. "With him there, I can keep an eye on that girl. In addition, other Great Monarchs won't be so dumb to try and use her for invading Samasal. I don't want to lose a good supply of soldiers of that quality over an invasion between Great Kingdoms again, now do I?"

"You make an excellent point." The arch-mage said as he took a sip of his potent drink. It was among the strongest he had, himself, back at his own palace. "Sire, if I may be so bold to ask... Why her? There were millions of magi down on that planet. We could have taken anyone else for the endeavor of studying their magic style. Her own master, her friend, even that Imperial girl from that well connected family. But why her of all people?"

"Simple. She was the easiest to get a constrained hold on among that group." The Emperor answered immediately. Ashracai didn't look very convinced. "Fine. If I took that healer girl, then I would have had that demon girl after me, searching the cosmos for us, eventually ending up dead on some random outpost of the Imperium. The girl's friend: She's just too smart, and would have whipped up an escape plan to get away from here even before she would go through the whole Combat test at the Institution. And her master, phew, don't get me started. He alone would have cost more than the others I'm paying for individually, at least double the expense."

"So it had nothing to do with Nodoka's ability to bypass every level of mind-shielding we know of, and that we might be able to harness such abilities for ourselves?" Ashracai asked sarcastic.

"That was just a bonus, nothing else." The Emperor retorted. "But you know me, old friend. I got long term plans in my head all the time. And when things go awry as they usually do for me, I need to improvise for their purpose here."

"Oh?" Ashracai said, putting his drink away on a nearby table. "And what of her friends? Those that managed to escape?"

"Oh, they'll show up eventually. And I do know where, thanks to Cireka's interference."

"Speaking of which, what are you going to do to her?" the arch-mage asked the Emperor.

"I'll have her exiled. But on one condition: She'll retrieve a Silver Sword for me." The Emperor answered him.

"A Crusade? Those haven't been used for some time now." Ashracai said, picking his drink back and took a sip. "Where are you sending her?"

"I'll be sending her off with the 42nd, 27th and 18th Legions along with Auxiliary soldiers to take a planet where a lost Silver Sword has been discovered." The Emperor said, taking a freshly fetched grape from Earth. "You can probably find out which one."

"Right." Ashracai said. "But if it is that Planet, wouldn't that mean that she could be killed there?"

"Then she was never worth it in the first place." The Emperor retorted. "And I'm not really expecting her to return at all, since I know what capacity for war the inhabitants possess."

"So not only will you get rid of Cireka, but you'll get also unpopular with the Cabal in the same process. Genius, Sire." Ashracai said with sarcasm in his voice. "You never cease to astonish me."

"Oh, don't worry, old friend." The Emperor turned back to the arch-mage. "I'm going to enjoy this plan, all revolving Nodoka-jou-chan. It also gives me a chance to meet with her master yet again, to see how he's grown in such short time."

Ashracai didn't say anything. He just sighed and left the room, leaving the Emperor alone. He needed time to think. _I can at least rely also on humanity's willingness to protect their own... With someone as important as Nodoka right now, there's going to be legions of humans willing to support her in this civil war... and at the same time, she'll be a target for others... In more ways than just the one leading to her death. No, no no! Stop that, Ashracai! She's a strong girl. She can handle herself. And she's already got Hinagiku and Boris with her. Her importance and general charm can get her more allies as well. Sigh, I'm seriously getting too old for this crap..._

**

* * *

**

A/N: That's the end of the Valentine's Day chapter. Good, innit? Also, due to some people not knowing the crossover characters, I will write down 1 character per chapter, for you to understand. Here's the first one.

**Name: **Hinagiku Katsura

**Original: **Hayate no Gotoku (Do not own)

**Age: **16, reaching 17

**Style: **Kendo

**Personality:** Caring, responsible, having a sense of duty to protect others, Hina is a very strong girl. She was announced as the most popular character in Hayate no Gotoku, with nearly 4000 votes to boot. She doesn't take lightly of the proverb that Girls should stay in the kitchen, and thoroughly thrashes any guy who thinks that. But she does have a soft spot, being afraid of heights. That's the only thing she's afraid of. For the sake of others, she can overcome this fear, but she'll tremble over it later. When talking about Hayate (MC of the manga), she gets flustered when someone is talking about something dirty about him.

**Quote: **"I am the Student Council President, and I will not lose!"

**Now, I need to answer a review I got recently:**

**Dragon:**_Such a suggestion would actually ruin the whole plot and put a cramp on my writing. I have to discard four other ideas for each I put forward. I swear, I was planning to have Nodoka preach Islam. No kidding. It eventually became a spin-off with Ashracai reading the Al-Qu'ran when he made his Debut. The whole thing that Negi and Nodoka are separate is what keeps this story going and it makes him recognize how important she is to him. Also, the whole thing with Negi and Asuna's kids being political puppets: Negi and Asuna already _are_ political puppets in the manga, and they move themselves. Everyone wants to get their hands on the strings that control them. I just made up the guy who wants the very best of situations to happen for their kids, not just some marionette for the Senate who is an excellent bluff. What's more, I decide what to write in this story. I do however thank you for getting me the idea of having one of Hina's friends join her adventures. I do intend to have them join the story later on, but maybe, just maybe, one of them might come out fast forward. _

_- Stercus, is actually a Latin phrase. It means 'Oh shit'._

_- The mounts that the messengers rode on are basically enlarged Bighorn sheep. It would make sense if the culture knew how to ride animals, but doesn't have horses. I have heard of Moose cavalry being used in the past. Both attempts were failures, but it was mainly due to that the Moose wasn't bred for the job of carrying someone. There are also some caribou today that can be ridden on, if trained and bred properly._

_- I decided to go with that Setsuna has a fan-club in Mahora. Makes a lot of sense really. There are girls who act like guys in schools at times, and several girls who act like normal girls, do find them to be very, very cool. Of course, with Setsuna acting like she is in the manga, there are mainly four words that could describe her best for herself at Mahora: Dead Sexy Babe Magnet. I'm not joking here. _

**That's all for now. Keep reading, please!**


	29. Negi's training starts, Nodo's day 2

**A/N: Now, things get turned up for both sides. And before we continue, I need to answer the same guy who came up with the response.**

**Dragon: **_You are one stubborn reviewer. I like your enthusiasm, but you too forget a few things. Negi & co are sitting around on their butts, simply because they don't know on how to get to Tu'narath in the first place. I mean, it's another Planet! How do you find someone in space, on the right planet, and then just get over there? Sure, they got magic to help them, thing is, they don't have that kind of magic. Secondly, I _**_never_**_ implied that they were going to let someone else do the work for them. When did you think of that? And, I was planning to bring in the rest of the Kenichi crew, way back when I started this. I just needed a good opportunity. Interaction, I'll admit I need more practice on that, but I do make some rather convincing stuff, if I must brag. But this argument is more suitable for personal chat, so get Skype (it's free) and look for _**_githlord7_**_ if you want to talk more about this._

**Now, let's be off yet again.**

_**

* * *

**_

Dean's Office

Negi, Evangeline, Asuna, Fate, Wilhelm and Kotarou were stunned. Leaning on the dean's desk, was Aristodemus, holding a handful of file cases, and dressed in a grey suit and black shirt underneath. He had his eyes closed, waiting for anyone to say something. The dean was in the office as well, accompanied by Takahata and Shizuna. Some time earlier, they had been escorted by Rachel, who was behaving relatively normal for once. And Negi & co had just been told about the Spartan's elevated status at the moment.

"Now, I am truly shocked." Wilhelm spoke up eventually. "That you would actually come here after all this, and actually take command of our situation."

"Well, what can I say? You were once again thrust into a world threatening situation, and now only this time, we're all in it." The Spartan countered. "You might not like this, but hey, same here. I just want to get this over with as soon as possible, and if that means taking control of the Magic World's forces, then I would have to do it."

"So what are we going to do?" Kotarou asked the old man. "Just sit around and do nothing?"

"I didn't say that. You guys are now basically my elite group." Aris answered the Hanyou. "I came to Japan to train you guys, since you are going to be at the center of it all. And since the US has refused to give me clearance to move troops here to the Old World, you guys are all that I have, save for the magic organizations on Earth."

"Elite group?" Asuna asked him. "Not to... look a gift horse in the mouth, but are you sure that we need more training? I mean, we already got Eva-chan and Fate to train us, but do you doubt their ability to tutor?"

"I heard that, you monkey." Eva replied.

"I don't doubt them, it's just that they don't have a much wide knowledge." Aris said, an argument which the two masters couldn't fight. "I may not be able to use magic myself, but with my age and my affiliation with so much magic, how big do you think my theoretical magic is?"

"Over the top." Negi said immediately.

"Bingo. So I'll be here to train you kids in magic, martial arts, and Chi usage. You're also accompanied by five people from Ariadne, namely miss Sevensheep and her squad. I believe you know those girls."

"So you think you're gonna do a better job than me, old man?" Eva asked of the Immortal with an evil grin on her face.

"Given how much time we got on us, yeah, I might pull it off, brat." Aris retorted with an equal grin.

_Those two make something of a lovely couple._ Konoemon thought to himself seeing the two Immortal bicker between themselves.

"We heard that." Eva snapped at the dean.

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it." Aris said pointing at him, not bothering to look at the dean.

* * *

Some time later, in the classroom, the class of 3-A got five additional members in its circle. Emily Sevensheep, Collet Farandole, Beatrix Monroe, Von Katz and Du Chat were now wearing the Mahora middle girl school uniform and stood in front of the rest of the class. Each of the girls seemed rather nervous about this whole endeavor. And Negi didn't seem much too pleased about it either. With Aris giving just a small explanation, he was very confused about the new girls being added to his problems.

"Er... could someone else take this, please?" Negi honestly asked out to the class. "I really don't know what to say, here."

"Let me, sensei." Yue said and walked up in front of everyone. "These are Emily, Collet, Beatrix, Jennifer and Lily. I may sound personal now, but they are friends of mine." Yue presented the girls. "They're going to be here for some time now, so please by all means, be nice to them."

It didn't take long before the first applause came. The first was made by Konoka, who applauded out of courtesy and friendship, but the others started as well, following her example.

Feeling somewhat moved, Emily stepped forward. "Um, thank you. We look forward to be with you whilst we're here at this prestigious school." She said, eschewing pride for once.

"Right then." Negi said, gaining some confidence that this might turn out well. "If you girls would like to have your seats at the far back of the classroom, we can start our lesson."

_**On Tu'narath...**_

Ever felt that everything and everyone is depending on you to accomplish everything and that you might have the guts to do the job whilst you really don't? That's how Nodoka felt right now. Shortly after they had left the castle in Samasaliasal, their presence had been announced, as she was named "Witch of Man". It certainly didn't help that Ifrith also had his announcers proclaim her as the omen of disaster. Meaning of course, they were driven out by the townsfolk, which was loyal to the Great King. To spice things up, the village they entered last night, didn't seem too happy over hearing the news. At least the innkeeper was nice enough not to drive them out. He had no qualm with them whatever Ifrith said.

In their room, they had agreed to have the girls have each a bed, whilst Boris could sleep on the floor. Hina took a close look at the blades that Nodoka had gained from that smith she and Ashracai had visited earlier. She found it to be of very high quality whilst at the same time, having a simplicity to them. Boris was very much surprised to hear that they were made from Damascus Steel, and he was not often surprised to be honest. In fact, he too wanted to have one, but since he wasn't in favor with the arch-mage, he had to fight unarmed. Lucky for the Russian, he fought best unarmed.

"So what now?" Hina asked the two others after they had eaten dinner downstairs. They were now in their room. "We're no longer welcome into the Capital, so where do we go from here?"

"First thing we ought to do is to find allies." Boris said. "Just facing Ifrith after just gaining the items would be rather foolish."

"True enough." Hina answered. "We got word at least that we'll be gaining a knight from the underground capital to journey with us. Perhaps he could show us a few things and tell us about the whole of Samasal."

"**Perhaps** is the word here." Boris said. "But, I've been studying the map over the map, and I've discovered where we are." The Russian took out the map and the two girls went closer to have a look. "We are currently, north-east of the Capital. The whole Great Kingdom is situated very good really as a strategic country. It's eastern borders is protected by a vast mountain range, whilst the western and southwestern borders are protected by an ocean."

"So the only ways in are the northern frontiers, which according to this map has a huge built wall with moats only one gate in each of the two countries there and guarded commonly by the two kingdoms from the Great Kingdom north of us, and the southeastern passage there." Hina pointed on the map. Nodoka was awfully quiet at the time. "Nodoka? You okay?"

"Huh?" The Bookworm responded at last. "Er, yes I'm fine. I was just... thinking."

"About what?" Hina asked of her sister.

"About all of this. Me become Queen of a Great Kingdom, we stuck in a war. What about coming home? Back to Earth?" Nodoka asked out loudly whilst sitting down on one of the beds. "When I first became a mage, this was never within my expectations. I mean, when did my, no, **our** lives get turned upside down?"

"You sound like this is your fault." Hina said, whilst the Russian leaned against the wall.

"It might sound crazy, but what if it **is**?" Nodoka proclaimed. "It's my fault we're at war with Ifrith-sama, at least."

"Not necessarily." Boris countered.

"Well, if I hadn't stopped by that soothsayer, we wouldn't be in this mess, would we?" Nodoka inquired, to which Boris had to give her a point.

"But what if it's meant to be?" Hina retorted, remaining calm. "If there were any ways to not facing Ifrith, Tou-san wouldn't have bashed his head against the pillar. But if he did so, then what choice do we have?"

The magi between them sighed and fell down on the bed. "If that's the case, someone up there has got it in for me." She said so whilst pointing upwards towards the roof, to indicate some higher being. "I think it's my grandmother."

"I bet she wasn't a pleasant woman." Hina said slightly chuckled, before someone knocked gently on the door.

* * *

Some time earlier, another horse rider had arrived at the Inn, at night with the planet's two moons hovering close together. He was armored mainly in Steel splint-mail, the metal pieces in a rectangular shape tied tightly together over a chain-mail shirt underneath. He also had a large, oval shield on his back with the symbol of the Githyanki Emperor on it, with a straight longsword under it. His forearms were covered by a large metal plate each with leather bands holding the plate onto the arm, and he had fingerless leather gloves under it. Metal bands went around his waist, particularly around the groinal area which was covered with splint-mail as well. Finally, where the metal of Steel wasn't shielding him, boiled leather made the job instead so he could be flexible. This was a Githyanki warrior, and he was looking for someone with the look he had.

He entered the Inn, filled with some people having drinks and one of them giving him the eye, but he paid no attention to it. He just went up to the Innkeeper and produced a gold coin. "I'm looking for a human party of three, two girls and one man, the girls having pink and purple hair, and the man is muscular like a mountain. You seen them?"

"Well, I gave them a room with two beds upstairs, third door on the right." The innkeeper responded somewhat nervous at the appearance of the Githyanki fighter. "Er, you wouldn't happen to be an assassin or something? I don't want any trouble here, that's all."

"If I was an assassin after those children, I wouldn't have bothered with entering the front door to begin with." The warrior responded, giving the innkeeper the gold coin and went for the stairs.

"Hey." The innkeeper called to him before the warrior could disappear upwards. "You're paying for them this evening. I kept them here because they were fugitives. If you're with them, then it's on **your** tab."

"...Fair enough." The Yanki said and then went up the stairs. According to the innkeeper, they were in the third room to the right. Finding the door, he knocked gently on it.

Inside the room, Boris hid next to it, hiding his large form, in case there was someone there with intention to kill or harm the girls. Hina and Nodoka hurried to seat themselves on one of the beds. "Come on in." The pink haired girl called from their position.

In came one heavily armored Githyanki warrior, with his weapons sheathed. "Greetings, I come here on behalf of th-GYYARG!" He couldn't finish due to a large muscular human taking a choke-hold on his throat, effective giving a weak strangle. "Hold on." He said whilst being choked by Boris. "Not... here... fight... no...Emperor sent... to help you..."

"Boris, you can let go now." Nodoka said after reading in her book that the newcomer had just told them that he had been sent by the Emperor. Boris let go, allowing the warrior to breathe.

"Nice grip." The newcomer first commented on Boris before addressing the two girls. "I am Ser Rev'keth, Sword Stalker and Knight in the Emperor's personal service, now at your service."

"Wait, the Emperor sent you? Personally?" Hina asked the Githyanki Knight.

"True, though I wish he didn't send me. After all, we didn't get a good first impression the first time we met." Rev'keth told her.

"First time?" Nodoka said rather surprised. "What do you mean 'First time'?" She asked before her book told and showed her, now with much better images. Her diary showed her about January 15, when the elite troops were taking her away... It showed her of Rev'keth, what he did that night. Knocking out Haruna temporarily, getting his hands on her, disabling Yue for a while, and then the events outside the room which she remembers clearly, before being brought in front of Fashtar the first time and then, Darkness had embraced her eyes. "...**You**!?"

"I told we didn't get a first impression of each other." Rev'keth said in defense as the other two took a look in the diary. "Look, we might not have gotten on the same rock together, but I'm just here because the Emperor told me to. And I can see why, with Ifrith declaring war on you. So, let's ignore the past and focus on the present and the future, shall we?"

"Fine." Hina started up. "But I'd like you to keep your hands to yourself."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Rev'keth responded. "I got my hands full with seven breeder girls already." Now, with that trust settled, they could get to work. " Now, I suggest we hit the town of Huttasa in the morning. It's a human town, protected by walls and the soldiers there are well trained. We might begin our search for allies there." Rev'keth suggested for them.

_**On Earth, inside Eva's resort**_

"So he really is here..." Yuuna whispered as the whole group of adventurous girls and guys eyed the old man remodel a few things in the castle, mainly the courtyard. Whispers had been in the class that the Spartan was at Mahora, and he wasn't here for the sights of Japan, it seems. "I'm really not going to like this." The basketball player said as they approached.

"Hey there, everyone." Aristodemus greeted them with a smile, whilst holding a big beam to assemble a large catapult. "I was just finishing up."

"Um... Aristodemus-san?" Ayaka spoke up for the whole class. "What exactly are you doing here? We weren't informed about your arrival."

"Well, I like to keep a few things secret, that's all." The Spartan responded to the beautiful blonde whilst finishing the catapult. "But let me get this straight at least. I'm not here for sight-seeing, nor are my companions brought from the Magic World." His tone had immediately changed to a stern one.

"Oh boy, now it's getting serious..." Asuna said sounding disheartened.

"As Commander-in-chief of the Magic World, I have full command here at Mahora. You kids will be my special team here whilst I'm awaiting clearance from the Old World leaders to deploy the rest of the troops in remote parts of the world. This naturally means that while here, you'll be going through harsh training."

"How harsh is this training?" Kaede asked.

"You had to ask?" Yuuna stated with a dumbfound look on her face.

"Well, depending on your current level really." Aris answered to them. "But if you were on Negi-kun's level," He pointed at the young Magi in question. "or at Setsuna's or Tatsumiya's, then let's just say that I don't get to hold back... too much." He said with a gentle smile.

_I'm dead._ Negi thought to himself whilst sweatdrops came down in a rapid speed on the back of his head. _Wait, I can't die according to him, that means that I'll only wish I was dead. Then again, I'm almost brought to near death by Master and Fate already. So, maybe I'll be fine. Yes, that's it. Hold on a minute here. He said it was depending on our level, so... yeah, I'm dead._

"_You might want to keep it calm, Negi-kun."_ A certain construct said in his head. _"They say that the more relaxed you are, the less likely you're to be injured."_

"_That is... reassuring?" _Negi asked of the white haired mage.

"_Not really, but it could be worth trying."_

"Now then, if you're finished talking to each other about this, let's get started." Aris said loudly, getting everybody's attention. Some time later, The whole group of them, aside from the Spartan and Negi were gathered on the walls of the railing to see the two missing members in action. Aristodemus was standing on a rock island in the sea right before the waterfall, whilst the young magi, dressed in his Chinese outfit with the ragged cloak was standing on the beach at the bottom of the castle. "Okay, Negi-kun, give me your best shot!" The Spartan called out to the young teacher.

"Eh?" Negi said somewhat surprised at this task.

"Just do it. I'm not gonna fail you or anything!" Aris called to him, seeing Negi hesitate. "I just want to see what you got."

"Er, right." Negi called back to the new master he just got. "Um, you do realize it's going to hurt?"

"Just hit me, Negi." Was the answer he got back.

_Er, suddenly I feel a bit Déja Vu about this..._ Negi thought to himself as he began to recall the time when Rakan started training him

On the railings

"Is that really wise?" Misora asked out loudly whilst watching the two. "I mean, just let Negi-kun hit him? If I know things right, then the old man is done for."

"Really?" Asuna retorted. "The world's oldest warrior by far, who's survived injuries that could probably kill a dragon instantly, and is a master of martial arts, and who's most possibly learned how to reinforce his body with energy, and you think he's done for?"

"Point." Misora said. "But we have seen Negi-kun go all out. Even the strongest of barriers are worthless against his Oukahouken and Raikahouken strikes."

"That's only because no one thought about using your Sagitta Magicka for close combat fighting." Rachel said, actually sitting on the rails. "Negi-chan is a genius and heavily trained, not to mention fast. He can quickly work out a strategy on how to best much stronger opponents in time span where you mainly scratch your nose." She commented on the young teacher. "But, the thing is here, is that he also need to reach Shishou here in order to strike him. Why do you think Shishou made such a distance gap between them?"

"Because he wants to see Negi's full speed in action?" Asuna asked out of curiosity.

"Something likethat, I'd guess." Fate said, standing next to the sitting Rachel. "He knows only in theory that Negi-kun is much faster than him, but in practice, Aristodemus-san has more advantage, using Negi-kun's speed against him so it doesn't work."

"So he's going to try and prevent Negi-kun from hitting him?" Sakurako asked the white haired mage.

"Something to that effect."

Down there

"Ras Tel Ma Skir Magister," Negi began chanting. "_A hundred and one spirits of lights, gather in my hand and strike down my enemy"_ The young magi chanted as the magic arrows gathered in his hand to form his standard Oukahouken strike. "Okay, here I come!" He called to the Spartan, who assumed a defensive stance with his legs bent at the knees and his arms flexed at the sides to brace his body for impact. Negi performed a shundou at first to close the distance between the two, only to be suddenly hit by something invisible once to get him out of control of his own body, then another one to send him flying backwards to where he originally stood.

"Huh?" the girls on the railings exclaimed when they saw that. Rachel merely broke out an excited smile.

_What was that? _Negi thought to himself as the young magi rose up. Stunned over that little... incident, he had almost forgotten about the loaded arrows in his hand. Almost. _Best be sure that it was just a fluke. _The teacher thought as he fired off the arrows that were about to go off anyway, towards Aris. One by one, each of the hundred and one arrows got wiped out by the same invisible force that knocked him. Save 101, which actually missed the Spartan by one inch. _He must have activated some kind of uniquely made barrier or something... I can't even see what it is..._

* * *

"What's going on down there?" Kotarou asked loudly as they all saw Negi being bashed away and the arrows been wiped out. "Is that some kind of barrier that the old geezer is holding up?"

"No, it's not a barrier..." Rachel said looking at the action intensely. "I've only seen that before once, but it's not a barrier from what I recall. I just call it the 'Minefield', but that's just me talking."

"Minefield?" A few people asked the little pervert.

"You see, some martial arts masters tend to get into a stalemate when they face each other." Rachel explained to them. "When they get in that stalemate, their bodies and minds calculate pretty much every available outcome on what the next move from either of them. The drawback to it however, is that every move by one master is watched by the other. Each move leaves you exposed to the other's counterattack."

"And what has that got to do with this situation?" Yuuna asked rather dumbly.

"Wait, I see." Setsuna said, understanding the answer. "What Aristodemus-san is doing, is that he's using that theory as a basis to develop a real 'Minefield' of counterattacks against Negi-sensei, altering its possible outcomes every time Sensei tries something new to get through the field."

"A good examination, Set-chan." Rachel addressed the Hanyou with the -chan honorific, much to Konoka's dismay. "But you don't seem to see the same things I see right now."

"Eh?" Setsuna sounded genuinely surprised whilst Konoka fumed to herself that only she could call Setsuna for "Set-chan".

"It takes some time, but eventually you can begin to see the predictions of his movements and counters if you only concentrate..." Leaving it at that, the pervert fighter stopped talked and leaned to get a better look.

_If you only concentrate..._ Fate thought and decided to have a closer look at this... minefield. After seeing the real deal, he quickly gained a very quiet face. _"Is anyone else seeing what I can?"_

"_I can."_ Mana answered him. "_I could guide Sensei through the field since I can see it, but I can't use telepathy like magi."_

"_Seems we got a deal."_ The construct responded to that and tapped into Negi's mind to talk to him.

At Negi's side

_Right. How do I get through that, since I can't see it?_ Negi thought to himself at the moment, seeing the Spartan standing completely still on his little rock island.

"_You're going to need some help, that's what you need."_ Fate's voice cut into his head yet again. Honestly, what was with the guy and telepathy in Negi's head? _"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."_

"_Oh, stow it." _Negi responded, getting a sour look on his face. _"You mean to offer help this time?"_

"_Heh." _Fate told him on the telepathy. _"If we're going to save the world together, we might as well get started. Okay, Tatsumiya can see what you can't and so do I. She's willing to guide you through, but she can't connect to you personally."_

"_Figures. Only way to accomplish that really would be that she and I make a pactio."_ Negi told him over the telepathy. Some time later he got word again.

"_She said she might consider doing it for free for once."_ Negi felt a bit doomed there as he was standing there, with a sweatdrop running down on the back of his head. _"Now, go forward in about six seconds, there'll be a gap." _Fate told him and he got ready. _"Now."_ Hearing that, the young magi took off, starting his chant yet again. _"Right hook, duck now."_ Following Fate's instructions from Mana, Negi dodged every move that Aris was throwing at him from his position. _"Now comes an attack to your stomach from the front."_ Negi narrowly dodged that one. _"A swift fullhouse kick left, duck and you're clear to hit him with full power."_

At dodging that last one, Negi really was in the clear, and he could give off the spell gathered in his hand. "Oukahouken!" The result was a massive explosion emerging at the place where both the young magi and the Immortal one were standing, causing a large smoke cloud, blinding everybody about what was going on.

"Whoa." Madoka said, surprised at Negi's sheer power. "I mean, Negi-kun is a great fighter, we all know it, but at this level..."

"He got better." Mana told her. Ayaka didn't say anything, for her eyes were sparkling like diamonds at the sight of her beloved teacher blowing the Immortal to bits.

"Best have a look at the damage." Fate said and whipped his hand forward. Then a strong wind came forward, getting rid of the smoke surrounding the rock island. However, it only revealed the young teacher, whilst there was no sign of the Spartan.

"Huh?" Everyone asked, seeing Negi being confused as well as to where Aris were. "Where'd he go?"

"Oi!" Asuna called down to Negi. "Negi, what'd you do to him?"

"I just hit him, that's what he told me to!" Negi called back.

"Then where is-"

_**KOOOOONNNNNGGG!**_ That sound was loud enough to echo across the whole resort, making the whole place shake in the process until the noise died.

"I think he hit the bottle." Eva said, looking at the walls of the bottle (the resort is inside one, recall?) for anything that might look humanoid and small.

_**Some time later...**_

"My ribcage is fractured, the neck needs recracking to get back in shape, I feel internal bleeding inside me, and my right eye almost got popped out on impact with the bottle wall." Aris told them as he was getting patched up by Konoka and Ako and Rachel, who was providing him with special potions. "I haven't had those sorts of damages done to me since I got into a battle with Hawaiians and I was on the **losing** side." He said with a chuckle. It really must have been a while since his eye got popped out, they took it. And why is he taking it so lightly? "That was a nice hit, Negi-kun." He commented the young teacher.

"Er, I wouldn't really call it a nice hit..." Negi said sweating. _Who takes internal bleeding so lightly?_

"Well, call it what you want." Aris responded. "Now I know how good you are. Eva and Jack have done a great job with you."

"He my disciple first." Ku Fei pointed out.

"Ah yes." Aris said. "I apologize for not mentioning you to begin with." He told the Chinese girl in Mandarin, completing it with a slight bow.

_This guy knows so much, it's not even amazing anymore._ Chisame thought to herself seeing the Spartan like that.

"Well, with that out of the way, how about we get started?" Aris asked them as he rose up from his seat. "We got little time really, and you need proper training for the missions I'm gonna send you on."

"Missions?"

"From the day after I was appointed, we magi have been getting reports of chaos across the world, mainly involving incidents that suggest unknown magic. And according to the US government, I can't deploy the Magic World's soldiers because there is no threat, because they see an international crisis as not a threat to national security. That only leaves me still with some 7 million magi to control throughout the Old World. So, I have to do with the best I got."

"Isn't 7 million enough to withstand this Githyanki invasion?" Asuna asked plainly.

"Not the way I see it." The Spartan answered. "And the US is laying claim to that their magi are not for my command, so there goes a few thousand as well. China is making the same."

"So our situation is pretty much screwed if we can't get clearance." Kotarou said realizing that the US were being idiots at the time. (No offense to US, but I just don't like the way you do things)

"Exactly. So... well, you probably already know the rest, so let's not waste anymore time and get to work." With that, everyone started training, with several different ways of doing it.

_**The next sunrise on Tu'narath**_

The town of Huttasa was positioned perhaps not at the best place, but it was well prepared. The walls were supported with a deep moat in front to prevent attackers from surrounding the city, along with sharpened stakes in front in case they would try it. The walls were low and thick, made of a special stone not found on Earth, and they formed an old basic function, with towers being within archers' reach of each other, and had a square form to them, rather than the high medieval round ones expected of a town.

"One thing, I have noticed here." Hina spoke up as she was riding behind Rev'keth, who was the front of the group of four. "If Tu'narath is the capital of a space Empire, why is it that this world seems so... medieval on the surface?"

"Ah, that is because this is our cultural way of living." Rev'keth answered. "We have always seen the sword as an effective weapon. Just because we have ranged weapons that could kill you with one shot, just like your Earth, why waste a good weapon? You'll run out of ammo eventually, so you need something that can still kill your opponent and still be usable afterward."

"So you live like medieval people just because it's your culture?"

"Not quite." Rev'keth answered. "The surface of Tu'narath is run separately from the rest of the Imperium. The space Empire is run by the Cabal underground, whilst the Surface is run by the Great Kings, allowed to make war with each other. Now, the Emperor is sitting at the very top, so he has to hold checks on both of the ways the Imperium is run. Well, he doesn't have to lift a finger really, but it happens that he has to put in a personal touch. The surface also happens to be our ready supply of soldiers, being used to the sunlight. Before we made up this way, we could barely stand being in the sun."

"Right, I'm not going to ask why that is." Hina responded. "But I must admit, there's little wrong with living like this. Fresh air, sunlight, no pollution, the climate feels great..."

"See? There's an upside to it as well." Rev'keth informed them. "Mind you, you should have seen us when we served the Lich Queen. Brrr, that was a nasty time."

The town itself was a multicultural town, with the races of Tu'narath living together inside. The main populace were humans, however, and those Githyanki the group saw was living inside, working for themselves whilst their human companions sold whatever stuff they were making. The horses themselves were a bit of an eye-catcher, getting the eyes of many passers by, making sure that the group were noticed. Not quite what the mage in their group had hoped for. She was more hoping that they wouldn't be getting attention to themselves.

Some time later, they found themselves outside a great building marked with two crossed swords on red banners. "Right. This is the Warrior's Guild. The Guild is international and interspecial, meaning all four races can apply here. Since we are fighters due to our gear, we might get some rooms here. If not, some training at least. Nodoka at least needs to learn how to fight." Rev'keth told them as they stood outside.

"No use arguing that." Nodoka said. "I do need the training."

"And also, they might be interested in seeing Boris and Hina fight at least." Rev'keth said before he opened the door to it. The hall of the Warrior's Guild was well done, with large wooden smooth tree trunks as pillars to support the second floor and the roof. There was a lot of space in the hall, as fighters from every race on the planet were practicing with each other. Humans, easy. Githyanki, they had long hair and yellow skin, so it was little trouble recognizing them too. But the other two races had yet to have been seen by the group of heroes. The Hobgoblins were muscular like Boris, not to mention lean and tall too. And like their Russian, their muscles were more for agility than brute strength. Their appearance was different at least. They had coarse fur with red-brown skin and red faces, with dark-brown eyes and yellow teeth. Two of them could be seen wrestling each other bare-chested in an open arena marked by a lower level in the floor and filled with sand.

The other race was called Rakshasa, large Feline humanoids. They had the bodies, arms and legs of man, but the heads and tails of Big Cats. Their head seemed to vary between tigers, lions and jaguars, with some mixes there as well. But their most shocking feature, were their hands. What would look like a right hand for a human, would actually be a Rakshasa's left hand, and vice versa for the left hand. They were also giants, even larger than Boris, and he was no short fellow. One was seen as an instructor to some human boys, all being initiates there, since apparently the Warrior's Guild were also in charge of training soldiers. The boys there were probably the sons of veteran soldiers and nobles, judging by the clothing.

"Ah, hello there." A bald human said walking up to them. "Come here for enlisting? Or are you simply travelers?" She asked the whole group. Rev'keth showed his badge to her. "Oh, pardon Sir Knight, I didn't notice it. Are these kids with you?"

"They are." Rev'keth answered the greeter. "Two veteran fighters from other parts of the world, and one young lady having need of some training at least." He gestured to Nodoka, who nodded to her. "We're also keen in showing some new techniques as well, if you'll allow us."

"Of course." The bald woman responded. "There are some training dummies which the girl can use for herself in her own pace. The rest of you can watch the others fight and have a spar if you wish to. Just don't cause any trouble."

The group agreed on that, since there wasn't going to be any trouble for them inside the Guild Hall. Nodoka was guided to the training dummies for sword training whilst the others watched the hobgoblins wrestle. The bookworm unsheathed her sword and started swinging at one lightly to check the balance of her new sword. She didn't make any swift movements, with thought that she might cut someone walking by. Sadly, she didn't know any sword skills, so from a veteran's view, she was real clumsy.

"Easy, easy." An old man's voice cut her off and she stopped to have a look. It was another human, this one heavily bearded and gray haired, dressed in a leather jerkin and a sword on his back. "You're holding the sword too light. Anyone could swat it off."

"Sorry, it's my first time using one." Nodoka replied weakly. The old veteran positioned himself right behind and took hold of her arms to help her.

"Get a tighter grip." He instructed her. As she did, he first guided her arms to move the blade close to her body and then raised the sword arm up. "Up, down." He said, bringing down the sword on the dummy in a slightly faster speed than she did. "Up, down." He repeated, repeating the motion on their right side. "One swift stroke. Now; left, right." He said, moving sword from left to right on the dummy. "Right, left." He repeated the motion on the other side. "And thrust." He finalized the training with a thrust against the dummy. Then he let go of her. "Now you try." He told her, taking a few steps back to allow her space.

Nodoka repeated the training motions she was given, in the same speed as he had done her through, and surprisingly, pulled it off quite well. "Exactly. You learn fast. First time using a sword?" He asked her.

"Yes." Nodoka answered him, and then cooked up a white lie to conceal her identity. "My father is captain of the guard back in my hometown, and he sent me along with Sir Rev'keth and his two fellows to take me along for a hefty sum."

"I see." The old man said, looking over at the rest of her party. "Your father must be getting a lot of threats for sending you away, I take it." He asked of her.

"Yes, a crime lord confronted father one day and threatened to have my family killed if he didn't stop capturing thugs." Nodoka told him, continuing on the lie. "When Sir Rev'keth showed up, he asked if I could come along for protection." The old man merely nodded and walked away from her, leaving the bookworm to her own gadgets. _Whew, I nearly lost my nerve there... He could have found out the truth..._ Some thudding away caught her attention, and she saw two guys competing against each other, throwing daggers at an archery target. Both were about six foot five, one with dark brown spiked down hair and wearing leather armor along with a scarf, and the other had a black cape on himself with a hood on.

"Come on, man." The one without a cape taunted the caped man. "You can't even hit the bulls-eye." He said. Well, the truth was, neither had hit the bulls-eye, hitting instead the places around the red spot. The one without a cape said with a quite snarky tone to himself and it was somewhat lighter than what Nodoka expected.

"And what about yourself?" The caped man responded, having a more calm, serene tone, yet cocky at the same time. "You haven't hit the bulls-eye yourself."

"Ah, just missing on purpose to help up your spirits, Hood." The first one said whilst tossing one dagger to hit just inside the red side above the center.

"Funny." The other responded, throwing his dagger now. It hit the center of the pommel of the dagger that landed inside the red circle. "I thought I was doing the same to you." He chuckled as the first one seemed rather... surprised at that.

A much larger dagger came flying in between the two and actually hit the bulls-eye, surprising both men and making them look back to see Nodoka there. "How's that? Thought I'd give it a go as well." She told them as she stepped in closer to them.

The first one without the cape stepped forward to retrieve her dagger from the archery target and handed it back to her. "Beginners luck. Try again." He told her, and she went again at throwing the dagger. Bulls-eye yet again. "Uh... right." He said and retrieved the dagger for her. It was only now that he noted the work. "Where did you get this?"

"A smith made it for me. I asked for this sword to begin with," She gestured to her sword on her hip. "but he threw in the dagger as an extra incentive." She informed them. "He said I was pretty, so it was a gift."

"Well, seeing as you are, milady, I can see why he threw in the dagger." The caped one said, giving a small bow to her. "Now hand over the dagger to her, will you?"

"How much?" The one holding her dagger asked of her.

"Well, it was for free for me, but my father paid the expenses, I think..." Nodoka started.

"I'm not asking you how much it cost for you, I'm asking how much you want for it." Was his reply to her, surprising the other two.

"What?" Nodoka exclaimed before taking the dagger back from him. "I just got the dagger, I'm not gonna sell it."

"Oh come on, please." He begged of her. "I could really appreciate it if you sold it."

"No, no, my answer is no. I'm not selling the dagger." Nodoka said and walked away from them.

"Look what you did just then." The hooded man scolded his rival at dagger throwing. "You just ruined a good score with a fine lady."

"What? Must have been that scar of yours." The other guy replied in self defense. "You should get an eye patch, man."

"Why? I can see perfectly with my eye, thank you."

Leaving the two men to argue between themselves, the bookworm walked up to the rest of the party. Hina were actually leaning against a standing Boris, watching now a sword fight between two fighters. One of them was the old man that had helped Nodoka learn the basics. The other was a Githyanki, with fairly long hair tied in a ponytail. "Hey, how did training go for you?" Hina asked as Nodoka came up.

"Got the basics down now." Nodoka answered. "Some guy wanted to buy my dagger. Said no."

"Huh, I guess we're not going to be at an ordinary life pace here either." Hina said as the old man managed to best the Githyanki warrior, despite using only a bronze shortsword. "I intend to go up next. Wish me luck." The pink haired girl said as the old man left the battle pit and allowed her to step down.

"A newcomer has entered the ring." The old man called, seemingly everyone listened, so it was estimated that he was in charge of this Guild Hall. "Who's willing to greet this young lady fighter?"

"I'll do that honor, Sir." A voice came from behind them, making Hina turn around and Nodoka did the same, since she recognized the voice. It was the same person who had tried to buy her dagger. "Allow me. I got a new weapon and I've been meaning to try it." He said.

Hina took a few steps away from him, as he was taking the same small stairs down into the arena as she had. "Oh? A new weapon?" She asked as he positioned himself in front of her. "Why don't you show us?"

"I think I will." He said and pulled out a sword from his back, along with putting up a Kite shield on his left arm. But what was most surprising, was the kind of sword he had pulled out. It wasn't any of the short bronze blades they had seen so far, or the steel longswords that they saw back at the Capital. It was a Katana, forged out of steel, and shimmering in what sunlight came in through the Hall's window. 60 cm long, its handle was made out of horn and wrapped in black silk to mirror the handle of Katanas back on Earth. "Impressed?" He asked her, whilst the others were surprised to see that it was made of steel. "I got it just off the black market. Pretty neat, huh? They said it was a one of a kind sword."

"It's not." Hina responded immediately, her head turned down so they couldn't see her expression. But the tone, at least heard by Boris, was not happy. When she turned her head up, they could see that her eyes were on fire. "I have no trouble with you using a Katana blade, but I must disapprove of the way you are treating it." She said with not so much an approving tone.

"What?" Her opponent said dumbfounded. Note that he was using a Katana, normally a two-handed weapon (which could also be used as single-handed), along with a Kite Shield. The Katana was never meant for such usage along with a shield, and that he was swinging it around just like a European blade, was most certainly disrespectful.

"You're not showing respect to the blade itself." Hina continued, whilst her Masamune was still being sheathed. "What is it, just another addition to a collection of yours?"

"Oof, your friend is being hard on him." Another voice said, and the bookworm noted that it was the same man with the cape. "She's ticking him off." It was now that Nodoka noted his looks. Underneath the hood, he had short black hair which was in a mess. He had one blue eye, his left one, whilst his right eye was white. That was due to that he had a scar over it, giving one the impression that he was partially blind. Like many other fighters, he had an athletic build. He was also wearing a brown leather cuirass, with a leather shoulder pad on his left shoulder, and fingerless gloves made out of leather as well. Heh, leather must be rather popular, no?

"Why, I'll show you how a sword should be done, girl." The Katana wielder said angry at her and readied his position. "Girls like you should just stay at home and make food for the men."

"He's dead." Nodoka said after hearing that.

"So dead." Boris agreed.

Hina didn't say anything at that, but put her hand on Masamune whilst taking a defensive position with her sheath holding her wooden blade behind her. "Come at me if you got the balls for it." That gained her some awe sounding from the crowd.

"Now she's done it." The hooded man said, as her opponent was charging at her, despite the small distance between them. He had raised his Katana high whilst she stood still.

_**Thwack!**_ In one swift move, just before he had hit home, she had drawn out Masamune and bested him in one blow, making him fall back, behind her, as she had also performed a shundou to end up behind him. It was then that the crowd noted that she had beaten him with a wooden blade. Hina rose from her crouched position and resheathed Masamune in her newly acquired scabbard. "Hmph." Hina scoffed seeing her opposition unconscious. "Before you master how to use a Katana, you should first learn how to master yourself." She said and then left the arena, getting a lot of applause from the audience.

"Not bad." Rev'keth congratulated her as Hina came closer. "I must admit, that style of yours is equal to the Sword Stalkers' fighting style."

"Why thank you, Sir Rev'keth." She greeted back whilst ruffling Nodoka's hair as her way of showing that she made the dagger thief go away. "But since we haven't seen your style, we can't really compare the two."

"Come on," Rev'keth gestured for them to leave the Guild. "Let's get out of here before more want to have a fight with us." With that, the group of four left the Guild, whilst the hooded man watched them. He was scratching his chin whilst the other members of the Guild pulled away the unconscious fighter to a bedroom they had. Deciding quickly, he followed the group instead.

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Journal of Nodoka Miyazaki, February 16th, 2004, Tu'narath

_I have just begun my quest to become Great Queen of Samasal. The burden will be immense, of that I have no doubt. Should the position give me a chance to get back home to Earth, I have no qualms with becoming apparently one of the most powerful people on the surface of another world._

_When I first became a mage, I knew that I would find my life being threatened by beings far more powerful than myself. I threw my life in the gambling pot for a few things: The thrill of it, being able to use magic to being with, along with my best friend Yue, and frankly, love. I have never tried to hide it since my confession that I was in love with Negi-sensei, and I was being encouraged by Asuna-san, Haruna, Setsuna-san and Konoka-san whilst I had the monopoly of being the one who confessed to him. That changed shortly afterward with Yue, who fell in love with him after my first official date with him. Well, I can't say I wasn't jealous when I saw them together after the festival because of the business with Chao-san._

_Then there was the Magic World. Getting almost killed four times was something special for me. Well, it was worth it, since I decided to get stronger as well. Just reading spells was not enough, I reckoned. That's why I trained hard with Yue and Konoka to get as good as they were. Well, martial arts wasn't in my range at the time, but now, where I am, I guess I should get started._

_This night, as I make this journal starting now, we met a good friend. It was that hooded fellow back from the Guild. He was nice enough to buy us dinner. We learned his name then. Symon, son of Gaelan. His dad runs a whole trading company. He apologized to us on behalf of his fellow member of the Guild for us. Hina opened up to him, as did I when he said that he didn't intend to take my dagger. Symon is quite nice, a great talker, he listens to what others says and he is something of a free spirit. I have little doubt that he'll be joining us once we leave Huttasa. He seems trustworthy at least. And he can drink. I mean, **really** drink. He outdrank the other guys in the Inn with some heavy stuff. But I do hope that he knows more than just being a heavy drinker if he's going to help us against Ifrith._

_But every now and then, I look into the stars to try and find Earth. Stupid, I know, but I really am worried how everyone back home is. I'm mostly worried about Negi-sensei. All I know is that he's alive, but I need to think back on him in order to keep going. I do wonder how he's holding up, what he's doing. He might have left Earth in search of me. Impossible since he doesn't know, but it's a possibility. If he has, and if we do meet each other, I swear I'm gonna give him a good scolding for being so reckless. Then I'd just kiss him for not giving up on me. I like him too much to not hate him. And I do hope for Hina's sake that her... Hayate-san will come for her as well. He sounds like that kind of guy from what she told me._

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A/N: There, that did it. I really need to learn how to set things up better. For those wondering, I will introduce the Kenichi crew next chapter and please, tell me your thoughts. I can't really proceed to become a better writer if I don't get many reviews. But, I can live with it right now.

**Name: **Boris Ivanov

**Original: **History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi (do not own)

**Age: **Never mentioned in Manga, presumed 17-18

**Style:** Command SAMBO (Elite Soldier level)

**Personality: **Loyal to a fault. If you want yourself a myrmidon, this is your man. Boris is stern, respectful of others, and is not an arrogant Fighter. He firmly believes that orders should be obeyed no matter what they are, which has led to that he has killed innocent people. On the other hand, he is like a dog chasing cars. He just does things, he doesn't make any plans for himself. The only time he made a plan for himself was when he was going to leave in the manga. Speaking of which, he has shown kindness to those who are kind to him. Lately, he has been questioning his belief of orders being dominant.

Quote: "Orders are absolute!"

**OMAKE**

Back in a hidden room in the basement of the dorms, a certain pervert fighter was going through some old log files, or at least that's what it looked like.

"Hu-hu-hu..." Rachel grinned to herself as she was actually checking through her hidden porn cameras. "I am such a genius. Hiding cameras in the rooms the girls were in the same night they got married on was brilliant!" She laughed, but remembered to keep her voice down as others were running about above her. "And I better get ready myself." She unfastened her pants, because watching porn always turned her on. "Yuri sex heaven, here I come." She said whilst activating the replays.

"ZZZzzz...." The first camera, with Madoka and Misa showed up, for Rachel to find both of them snoring.

"Huh?" Rachel said as her right hand was in the pants. "Damn, nothing there. Well, how about the Princess?" She switched over to Asuna and Ayaka to see what sort of steamy things they were doing.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz..." Asuna snored loudly whilst having her head turned away from Ayaka's direction. The blonde on the other hand was laying her head on Asuna's bosom.

"Damnit, nothing there either." Rachel said, getting a little sad. "What about Konoka-denka-chan?" She switched over to Konoka and Setsuna. Both of them were asleep, Setsuna's arms around Konoka as if to protect her. "Kota-chan and Nat-chan?" She tried that one. No luck. She really was going to regret this one. "Negi-chan?" Well, you get the picture. "Damnit, no fiery love-love this time. Well, I guess I can't blame them, I pumped them with alcohol that night. Suppose I'll-- oh?" She noticed one camera that hadn't been watched. "I don't recall this one." She switched over to that one.

"Whoa!" She said as she saw her master and Precia getting it on. Well, Precia was well formed for being in her fifties, and Aris wasn't some sack of bones either. Well, he hasn't been for the past two and half thousand years. But Rachel shut that one down after a while. Seeing those two in an act of celebration did turn her on, but it wasn't what she was looking for. "No matter how good that stuff was, I gotta destroy this."

**And that is official, they did not have sex that night, at all. Another thing that's official, if this EVER becomes an anime (which I highly doubt) Aya Hirano would be Rachel's Seiyuu.**


	30. Rachel's Secret, Ryouzanpaku pt 1

**A/N: Right, then. I needed to think very carefully about this one. I hope you enjoy this as well. Also, This is now an official AU, since Emily is still here. But let's just assume that... everybody at the Ostia Festival came back okay, shall we?**

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Journal of Hinagiku Katsura, February 18th, 2004, Tu'narath

_This would be day 4 four of our adventure together. Father Ashracai can't be with us because he just happens to be 2nd in command of the whole Imperium. Traveling with humans would put a... humiliating stain on his mark. Which is why we have a knight sent by the Emperor instead. He's not happy about this position._

_Even so, we've gained one ally so far. Symon has shown himself to be a rather extraordinary fellow. He's not interested in us because Nodoka and I are pretty ladies, even if he has said so, he's with us because he thought we were in need of aid. And so far, he is proven to be of his word to. He also helped me get registered at the Warrior's Guild, so now I am able to learn fighting inside city walls for free, and we have the aid of Grandmaster Brosa if need be. Not someone who likes to deal with politics, it seems._

_Speaking of which, I am surprised to learn that here on the surface, humans have virtually no access to Iron, save through trade. With the other races here as well, I can only guess why. It could be that the crust of the planet doesn't have any iron to dig up in mines, or it is too deep in the earth for surfacers to dig up. Another reason could be that humans here doesn't have the metallurgy to work with iron, and must rely on trade to get it. I don't know at this stage._

_Nodoka is getting better at using her sword. I swear, she's almost getting good enough for me to have sparring sessions with her. Boris is also keen, but frankly, I don't stand a chance against him, so he won't be sparring with Nodoka for some time. Nevertheless, she is getting better._

_I've noted that she has begun on a journal as well. We might make a common one after this entry, take turns at writing down our thoughts and what we feel about all this. But tell you what, when we get back to Earth and we go separate ways, or stay together, I swear that I will write this down as a novel. Best seller for sure._

_I wonder really, what Negi-kun is like. A ten year old kid, surrounded by a lot of cute girls, and he **hasn't** taken an interest in any of them? I really need to see this kid. If he's like what Nodoka told me, I suppose I should give him some pushes in her direction. What kind of sister wouldn't I be, then?_

_**11 pm. Earth, Mahora Gakuen**_

After a long time of training by Aristodemus-san, the girls had been given time off for dinner and sleep. They also needed to work on their homework. Besides, _someone_ had forgotten to check up how the new dorm assignments for the newcomers and the current people there would live. It also brought the nearly ridiculous question of how would the wedded people live, if they should live with one another, or if they should be sent to another dorm so they could be alone.

The one who asked that question (probably Haruna) was found later dangling by the foot, in nothing but her underwear, hog-tied with the rest of the clothes and it was a long way down to the floor.

For now, though, they agreed that Collet could stay in Yue and Haruna's room, where Nodoka used to be, and that Alica be given the couch in Konoka, Asuna and Negi's room. Theodora could take a single room, whilst the rest of the newcomer girls took up other rooms where three girls could be accommodated. Setsuna was forced to stay in her old room with Mana (order of Asuna), so that there wouldn't be any... unusual noises for Negi to hear.

She didn't mind that right now. Tonight, under the full moon, Setsuna needed to stretch her wings and take a flight around campus. It was some advice that the Spartan had given her, that since getting restrained all the time in public was a pain, doing one's best pleasure in secret was a great relief. She had to admit, she found it very releasing.

Taking loops around the towers of the campus, and going so low she could touch the water, Setsuna really felt free at this element. The wind in her face and the sweet smell of early cherry blossom trees certainly felt like heaven. Most invigorating, was the World Tree itself. Its massive branches always made you feel at home, and she found a good spot to land on for a small breather.

"Ahh... so, releasing!" She exclaimed to herself, ruffling her feathers. _I sorely needed that. Aristodemus-san certainly knows what he's talking about..._ She thought as she sat down on the branches to think clearly. Her eyes came to look at the moon and she saw unexpectedly Nodoka's face there in the glow. _Nodoka-san... I don't know if you __**ever**__ will get back, but I intend to make sure that you will. Even if it meant leaving Konoka behind..._ Now her thoughts came to remind her of Konoka and her new elevated status. _Konoka... I wonder really if we even should stay together. Being married to you is great, truly and yet, what would the other regions say about this? They'd certainly not approve, even if you are of the Imperial Bloodline..._

The Hanyou was seriously considering about leaving Earth and find something for her to use to try and find Nodoka on her own. She'd have to write a note to the class, find some Githyanki ship, snatch it or force them to take her along and then get herself to wherever the bookworm was. _I'd better gear up as well... Not to mention finding the Githyanki would be- _"Eh?" She spotted somebody else out in the night. This one was flying as well. Her first thought came to Eva, since it was the full moon. But this one had wings. Setsuna began to think of one of the dragons that was given to their group by Fashtar. But the person was too small. _Who?_

Setsuna took off from the World Tree to follow this person. Whoever it was, it was a small person. Much smaller than the rest of the class. Setsuna stayed above and behind, keeping herself concealed from the other's line of sight. Passing Sakura Lane, the unknown winged person stopped to stand on the top of a lamppost and look up at the moon. Setsuna landed on the ground instead to see her identity. _You must be kidding..._

Rachel was muttering something so quiet that Setsuna couldn't hear. She was also wearing something rather extravagant, in a small black cloth top that was rather ragged and old, which the bottom part of the outfit was little more than a black jean-miniskirt, so her belly button was showing and her legs as well. Her prided Falx weapon was stuck in a baldric behind her butt and there were some small bottles, like those from Chemistry, and filled with various kinds of liquids, no color the same. Rachel also looked more... busty. Setsuna certainly recalled that she was something of a pettanko like the twins, and as tall as Yue. Now, she was as tall as Asuna, with her bust being the size of Ayaka now. But what was most curiously, was her wings. They were feather-like, just like Setsuna, only they were black, just like the Tengu tribe (!). When Setsuna got closer to the usually smaller girl, she could hear her muttering in Ancient Greek...

"φεγγάρι περισσότερο νωθρά όνειρο σε - νύκτα από έναs δίκαιοs γυναίκα επάνω αυτήν καναπέs σε αναπαύομαι , χάδι , με έναs χέρι και ελαφρύς , πριν αυτή κοιμάμαι έρχομαι σε επαφή του αυτήν στήθοs. επάνω αυτήν μετάξι χιονοστιβάδα του κάτω, αυτή αναπνέω έναs μακρύς και όραση ; και παρακολουθώ the άσπρο οράσεις παρελθών αυτήν ρέω , ο οποίος σηκώνομαι αρέσω στο γαλανός ουρανόs. και πότε , σε ώρα μέσα αυτήν γλώσσα βαθύς , γεωσκώληκας αυτή lets έναs περισσότερο δάκρυ - σταγόνα ρέω , μερικά, εχθρός του κοιμάμαι , παίρνω μέσα δικός του κοίλος χέρι the δάκρυ του χιόνι πότε του Ιρλανδόs και του οπάλλι αρχή , και κρύβω αυτό από το ήλιοs , βαθύς μέσα δικός του καρδιά." Rachel muttered to herself whilst looking at the moon, the language being recognizable as Ancient Greek, but its meaning was lost to Setsuna. (!)

_What the heck is she saying? _Setsuna thought to herself, but a step from her made Rachel stop and have a look at the intruder of her serenity. "Setsuna..." She said softly with a tone Setsuna hadn't heard from her before, and turned to face her. "I was just giving thanks to great-great-Granddad."

"Your... great-great-Granddad?" Setsuna asked completely genuine.

Rachel turned back to the moon. "He's always out there, looking after his family. I'm not the youngest, but I'm neither the youngest." She said in her same, serene tone, whilst flapping her wings softly. "I got this from him personally, once." She held up quite an intriguing amulet, which had an otherworldly symbol on it. "With this, he can always tell how I am and where I am."

"So why the thanks?" Setsuna asked of her.

"It's not for the amulet." Rachel answered the swordswoman. "I said thanks to him for letting me see the princess yet again, and that I would do anything in order to honor a contract I made that involved her family..."

"Right, I'm not going to ask you about that one." Setsuna said and then got to her main question. "I couldn't help but notice that you have black wings like the Tengu tribe, Rachel-san." She said, and the other girl didn't say anything. "I happen to be familiar with other winged tribes as well, but seeing you like this makes me curious..." She intended to go full front with Rachel. "You're half-Tengu as well, aren't you?"

Rachel didn't say anything, in fact, the girl didn't even bother to look in Setsuna's direction. She just took out a yellow glowing bottle and drank all of it, then turned to Setsuna.

**  
_Over at the dormitory_**

"So let me get this straight." Asuna said, standing outside her dorm room. "Theo-san will have a single room here, and the others will stay with the rest of us shifting between the rooms so they get to know us. Am I right so far?"

"That's right." Theo said, holding a clipboard holding the new arrangements. "This is only temporary, as I'll be moving to the teachers' dorm as well for those who doesn't have apartments and you left out little Alicia-chan. She'll be staying with you guys in your room."

"I'm sorry, what?" Asuna asked as the mentioned little girl stepped forward. "I guess it can't be helped then." The redhead said with a sigh. "Right, er, Alicia-chan, there are some rules about our room." She pointed out for Alicia, who nodded in return. "We'll take them once we're inside."

"Um, has anybody seen Set-chan?" Konoka asked them, sounding worried. "She said she was taking some time stretching, but she's been gone for some time now."

"Come to think of it, where's Rachel?" Yuuna wondered as well.

_**Over at the two...**_

"So what if I am Half-Tengu?" Rachel asked the pinned down Setsuna.

It had all been a blur for the raven haired girl. First Rachel had attacked her with a speed she hadn't experienced from the girl back at Arcadia, then Setsuna tried to escape the site, only to be caught by the foot and then getting a broken right arm. Next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground stomach up and Rachel sitting on her with her Falx branded at her throat. Setsuna felt like a fool for leaving behind her sword and her artifact with Negi. She did have her card with Konoka's Pactio with her, but the more busty one between the two wouldn't let her get to it. "What does it matter to you if I am Half-Tengu as well?" Rachel asked her again.

"I was just being curious, that's all." Setsuna responded somewhat nervously.

"I've murdered people for less." Rachel retorted immediately, and the pinned girl felt dread come over her. "But, since you asked so nicely, and since Konoka-denka-chan wouldn't forgive me if I did kill you, I will tell you. Yes, I am Half-Tengu. On my father's side."

"Should have known that." Setsuna scolded herself. "Who was he, really? Was he Ajari? Sanjakubo, perhaps?" She was listing some Tengu people she knew from when she was still in the tribe.

"My Father died twenty years ago, Set-chan." Rachel said, turning on her tone that had sent chills down the class' spines when she was their opponent. "You never saw him as a baby." Now Rachel was moving her head closer to Setsuna's. "I can see it on you. You want to know how he died, didn't you?"

"Well, actually, I was thinking that you would go make a move, but since you asked me about that, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to know." Setsuna responded to her, **trying** to act calmly. "But could you at least get rid of your Falx? It's getting in the way, don't you think?"

"Point." Rachel said, putting her weapon aside. "You know from the war, that Ala Rubra fought to stop the war and defeat Averruncus along with the Life Maker, yes?" She asked and the Hanyou nodded at her. "Eishun-dono, was the one who did the deed."

"Eishun-sama killed your father?" Setsuna exclaimed surprised.

"Using the same blade you use now." Rachel said. "I was furious myself and tried to go out of my way to try and take revenge for it. Although I was beaten thoroughly by the Ala Rubra, Eishun instead issued a contract with me, as I was part demon myself."

"You're not joking..." Setsuna said as she realized which princess she was talking about.

"As I signed the contract, I was sentenced to serve and protect the Konoe bloodline, especially the maternal line." Rachel told her, holding up her right hand to reveal a glowing symbol, which was the one for the Konoe line, slightly above another symbol, one that was unrecognizable for Setsuna. "So even if you left looking for Honya-chan, I'd be there to protect Konoka-denka-chan (!)."

"How did-!?" Setsuna asked her, but the pinned girl was cut off.

"You had that look about you." Rachel said. "Personally, I wouldn't stop you from leaving Earth if you found a Githyanki ship, but do you think that your classmates would? Or even Konoka-denka-chan? Do you think she would forgive you for leaving you behind?" Rachel accused the young Hanyou.

Setsuna had to think on that one. "I would do it, I would leave them here simply because emotions tend to get in the way when you work seriously, especially if in the military and also-- Mmmmpphhh!" She could finish her little speech because Rachel had put her own lips over Setsuna's. And she was pushing down hard. _What? What is she doing?! _Setsuna thought as this kiss was going deeper. _This is an adult kiss?! Is she actually--- __**!!!**__ --- Her tongue is onto my gums! What the fook!?_ Setsuna struggled to get loose from her, but Rachel was still going on to her. The pinned girl was pounding hard on Rachel's chest with her one good arm to get her off, but it didn't work. The busty one was just going on kissing her harder and deeper. Setsuna felt her breath being lost, as she began to cough inside the kiss...

"Pwahhh!" Rachel finally let go, and Setsuna started coughing loudly, grasping for air. Rachel merely wiped her mouth from saliva and looked down on that. "Best counter I could think of at the moment." She told Setsuna as she was trying to get air. "You're right about the emotions thing, but know this: Konoka-denka-chan will have urges someday. And when she gets those urges and you're not around, I will take that charge as well. As is my duty." Rachel rose up from Setsuna, and practically shoved a bottle into her left hand. "The Commander is sending Asuna-chan and Konoka-denka-chan to an unspecified location tomorrow, I was forbidden to tell anyone where they're going. They have four other people with them. I will go to Kyoto to talk to the Shinmeiryuu as well tomorrow. Now I want you to come with me so you and Eishun-dono could talk about the whole story behind me and the contract. But if you want to go out there..." Rachel pointed up to the stars. "...I'll note it down for the Commander that you went on a solo mission to infiltrate the enemy, and the others can't have a say in it. Think about it." With that, the busty girl took off, flying away and leaving Setsuna down on Sakura Lane with a broken arm, and a heavy dilemma. Some distance away, a certain vampire smirked to herself, having seen the exchange.

_

* * *

_

Lady Nodoka, Witch of Man

_First of all, I'd like to say that it is an honor to have you being a resident of Huttasa, even if your time will be short here. Now, I understand that you are, somehow, destined to become the next Great Monarch of our area, Samasal. Personally, I'd like to stay out of this, but that it was announced so shortly, makes me grip the pen._

_From what the townsfolk has told me, you have been spending your time at the Warrior's Guild, learning your skills in combat and magic apparently. This is good, but if you are to be Great Queen, you need more than just battle skills to hold the throne. Thus, I send this._

_I've received reports of a bandit army gathering to the north of our city, threatening to plunder it. So far, the army is small, but it's enough for me to take action. Unfortunately, I can't send troops as the bandits has always avoided our patrols. But they do not know you. Which is why I ask you to lead a contingent of soldiers against them, so that you may also learn how to lead. I've already provided you with a fort and the additions to support the men. I leave their training and equipment to you and your group, as I could only spare the logistical support._

_If you are to become regent, you must learn leadership, discipline and rulership before you can take on the duties of Queen._

_Signed – Sverker, Lord of Huttasa in the Kingdom of Velucya_

_**Sorry, no Nodoka part just yet.**_

"So you haven't seen her since the training?" Asuna asked the chocolate-haired girl as they walked down the street.

"Hmm." Konoka said as she was holding the map they had been given. "Set-chan's been missing all night, and I haven't got a word from her at all. She's not even answering her cell phone."

"Maybe she went with Rachel to Kyoto?" Madoka asked as she was wearing her casual clothes and the arm-guards she was given. In fact, Madoka, Misa, Misora and Chachamaru were going with them to this new location where they haven't been to before. It was a good thing Konoka could read a map, otherwise, they'd be lost. In addition, the robot was carrying a long silk covered... thing on her, just like Setsuna would carry her blade on her. Why she was carrying it along was a bit of a mystery. Something that the Spartan had asked of her, apparently from what Chacha was willing to answer.

"Maybe." Misora said. "But that doesn't explain why she'd turn off her cell phone."

"Setsuna-san had been confronted by Rachel-san last night from what Master told me." Chachamaru said in her calm monotone. She proceeded further. "Apparently, Setsuna-san had been thinking about leaving in search of Nodoka-san."

"Eh?" Misa exclaimed, whilst Konoka turned very, very quiet. "Setsuna-san leaving? What brought that on?"

"There is of course the possibility that Nodoka-san might not be returned after all. So the hypothesis here is that Setsuna-san was trying to find a way to leave Earth and search for the Githyanki Empire without the rest of us."

"And leaving her wife behind?" Asuna exclaimed, unknowingly gaining the attention of someone sweeping the backyard, covered by a wall. "Seriously, that's not very nice of her. What kind of spouse is she?"

"Asuna, you're married too." Konoka said quietly, still getting the attention of the backyard sweeper.

"Yeah, but I at least wear the pants of me and Ayaka." The redhead said, eventually giving the guy a nosebleed. "Seriously, if Setsuna was gonna leave, she might as well take her best friends with her."

"Did you guys also hear a spray of liquid somewhere?" Madoka asked out of the blue.

"Hey, here we are!" Konoka said as they came to a huge gate made out of wood and iron, standing out from the white wall that it was stationed by. Built in Japanese traditional style, it was large, no, more than large enough for a three meter tall giant to pass through with ease. Above the doorway, there was a sign with old Kanji painted on it. 'Hakuzanryou' was written from what they could read from it. "That's odd. Aris-san said that this place was called 'Ryouzanpaku'."

"Well, let's check anyway." Asuna said and she along with Chachamaru went to try and open the gate. The keyword here is 'Try'. "What is with this door?" The redhead said as she and the robot struggled to get it open. It didn't even budge. "Have they locked it or something?"

"Weight ratio is estimated at about 800 kilograms on each door." Chachamaru said on reflex. "Linked together double up those values."

"Oh, so it's just heavy!?" Asuna exclaimed as she was pushing her back against the door. "Kugimi, care to help?"

"Um, sure." Madoka said as they failed to notice her armguards glowing slightly. The trio of fighters repositioned themselves and stood against the doorway.

"On the count of three." Chachamaru said.

"One." Asuna started.

"Two." The cheerleader followed.

"Three!" All three of them said as they pushed. Somehow, it was as light as a feather just then, and the trio crashed right onto the pathway right behind the big gate. "What the-?"

"What happened just then?" Madoka asked herself as she lay in the middle with Asuna on her right and Chacha on her left. "Wasn't that thing weighing some two tons just then?"

"Who cares?" Asuna said, getting up. "We're in now." She helped the other two up and then joined by Misa, Konoka and Misora, entered the unknown territory of this place.

It was quite a large place, with lots of open space, with the buildings stretched thin within the walls. It was actually, a lot of peace and quiet around as well. It was all neatly built in the traditional Japanese style, though seemingly a bit rugged and worn out, but it had a certain tranquility to it. "Hello!" Asuna called out, and no one seemed to answer. "Maybe they've gone out."

"No, they don't have any jobs, so they should be here." Konoka said, remembering what Spartan had told her, since she was the elected diplomat for this. She had no idea why she was called 'Diplomat'.

"Right, let me know when you find one." Misora said before bumping into a big wide pillar. "What? Who puts a pillar in the road?" It was then that the nun noticed, it wasn't a pillar. In fact, the 'pillar' was well two feet across and stood some seven feet up, ending with spiked grey hair wrapped in a red bandana. The pillar was also as muscular as they come, rock hard and if you knocked on it, it wouldn't go flabby. He was also wearing red shorts and a yellow undershirt, revealing his big arms. Finally, his wrists were wrapped in small hemp fiber strings, to make effective battle gloves. Asuna had worn such gloves as well back on Arcadia, but this guy was certainly a lot stronger. "Uh, guys, I think I found one." Misora called to the others as she looked into the face of the pillar.

"Yo! I'm Apachai!" The big pillar said, holding up his hand, but forgot to wave. He had a Thai accent to his voice.

"Er... Hi?" Misora called back to him, before rushing to safety behind the robot of her team. "Kill it with fire, please." She whispered to Chachamaru.

"No." The robot stopped her. "He seems nice enough." Then Chachamaru bowed at... Apachai, who bowed back at her. "Could you show us to the owner of this place?" She asked the big giant.

"Apa. This way." Apachai said before taking the lead in front of them. "Chourou! Someone here to see you!" He called out to someone in the big mansion.

"Is that guy trustable?" Misora asked out loud, still clutching to the robot.

"Well for starters, he hasn't tried to attack us." Asuna responded to that. "And he waved at you instead of snapping your neck."

"But still." The nun tried to reason.

"Chourou!" Apachai called out again. "You have visitors!"

"Alright, alright!" An elder voice called back to the big Thai. "I heard you the first time!" At that, a large form jumped down from the roof and landed in front of them with a large blow to cause smoke.

"Big." Misora said as the smoke cleared. They say a large man dressed in green traditional Japanese clothing crouched in front of them. "Very big." She continued as he rose up to stand up on his two feet. "Freaking huge." She exclaimed terrified as the old man turned out to be taller than even Apachai. He had also a lot of muscles, seriously. He was as rock hard in muscle build as Rakan. He was also much older, as he had a big blonde beard and the long hair to match it. His eyes were obscured beneath his large eyebrows and he had a stern look about his face. Hang on, blonde hair!? "Can we run now, please?" The nun begged her classmates.

"Nonsense." Asuna said and stepped forward to greet this new giant. "Um, are you... Furinji Hayato-san?"

"Well that I am, young lady." The green clad giant responded kindly. "How come six sweet ladies like yourselves are doing here?"

"Er, well we're not here to train, if that's what you're wondering." Asuna answered him, before someone started screaming and another form was sent up high into the air.

"Oh, shoot!" Hayato exclaimed as he looked up behind himself. "I forgot. I'm coming, Ken-chan!" However, before the old man could react, someone else had jumped up ahead. Asuna had accurately jumped up to where she had estimated and caught a young man about 2 years older than herself. Short brown hair did he have and he was bare-chested, so she could notice his ribcage. It was quite... something at least. Well, everyone here seemed to have large muscles, so he was probably that as well. But he was also a lot younger than the others here, so he was assumed by the redhead to be a disciple here. _Oh!_ The old man thought as he saw her catch the young man. _That girl is not ordinary at all. She must have a strong master herself..._

Asuna landed, holding the young guy in her arms, as if he was featherweight. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." The guy she rescued stammered out of himself. "Um... Could you put me down before-?"

"Hey, Kenichi!" A stern, rough male voice cried out from where he had been tossed. "I'm sorry about that, I didn't intend it to... to..." A large large man about the same size as Apachai emerged to the girls' sight, wearing a leather jacket and no shirt on, with blue jeans. He had black hair with a single lock sticking out, probably due to it being missed by gel, **if **he used gel. He did notice Asuna holding Kenichi as he called him, and in seconds, sniggers came before the laughter. "Sorry! Sorry!" He got out between the laughs. "It's just..." He forgot what to say since he saw a redhead girl younger than him holding him up like a knight would hold a fair maiden.

Asuna responded by dropping Kenichi to the ground. "Right, let's talk before the rest come to laugh at us. Come on, everyone!" She called to the rest of her group.

_**On Tu'narath at the time...**_

"Our first military campaign." Hina noted as the five of them rode towards their new destination through the woods. "Somehow, it just feels awful to me."

"Same thing to me." Nodoka said along with her. "Why do I feel like we're missing something here?"

"The letter did say that we lack proper weapons and armor." Rev'keth pointed out, looking at the letter sent by Lord Sverker. "Personally, I got no troubles at all."

"It said that we should make their training on our own as well." Symon, their latest addition added. "I feel like we're going to be met with conscript soldiers."

"Then we're porked." Hina said, hanging her head. "Unless one of us just happens to have military training themselves."

"With all due respect, my Lady," Symon pointed out, halting his Caribou in front of Hina's horse. "I happen to have had training with milita and soldiers since I was fourteen summers old, and I do believe that Sir Rev'keth himself is a well trained warrior as well."

"I **think**, what Lady Hina said," Rev'keth pointed out. "is that we need someone who also has experience with **instructions**, not just combat training. Where are we going to find someone like that for this?"

"Simple." Boris spoke up. "You're riding with one."

"Boris?" Hina inquired of the Russian. "You're trained as an instructor?"

"No, but I grew up in the military." Boris responded. "To cut it short, I'm a highly trained fighter in Command SAMBO (!), and my mentor happened to be a colonel in the Russian army, Alexander Gaidar."

"You mentioned his name back at the Institution." Nodoka noted, recalling the time the Russian had Fashtar in a chokehold around the Yanki's throat.

"He's my Master." Boris told his story. "It's from him that I learned how to fight, and that orders are absolute."

"Even if it meant killing innocent children?" Hina pointed out.

"Orders are absolute." The Russian answered her truthfully.

"Okay..." Nodoka said. "At least he's on our side, Hina." She whispered to the pink haired girl.

"True, but I don't think I can trust him now." Hina pointed for the bookworm to know.

"Come now." Rev'keth spoke up to get away from that subject. "We'll be in sight of Fort Keithan in no time. Let's quicken the pace."

"Alright then." Nodoka answered. "Symon-san. Could you go back to town later to pick up the weapons and armor we need for equipping the men once we've checked up on them?"

"That I can, my Lady." Their new rogue responded with a neat bow on his Caribou mount as they came to see the first watchtower of their fort.

_**Back at the group of girls**_

"You're indeed at Ryouzanpaku, young ladies." Hayato said, as they were in the house, sitting by the table. The Mahora girls were now surrounded by all the residents of the place. Alongside Hayato and Apachai, the giants of Ryouzanpaku, there was also Sakaki Shio, the big scar-faced fighter who laughed at the sight of Asuna holding up a guy. He was said to have 100 dans, or levels, of Karate, easily recognized as the strongest Karate Master there was. But if anything, the short Chinese person in green clothing and little dark green hat was certainly reminding the redhead princess of a certain rodent.

Ma Kensei, the master of all Chinese Kenpo, was in his mid-forties apparently, and he was the shortest of the bunch. He seemed to be holding a camera at the time, but Asuna could certainly figure out what he was planning to do with it. That was certainly like the rodent back home. He was friendly enough, though, and certainly backed off when he tried earlier to take pictures of Konoka, and Asuna 'slipped' the fact that she was actually part of the Imperial Family.

Next up, was Koetsuji Akisame. Now this has got to be the strangest person they've met since Albiero Imma. Tall and highly muscular, though wearing a Hakama to conceal his body-frame, Akisame had also white glowing eyes, constantly. Whether he was actually born that way or if he had achieved a high level of Chi, the girls weren't certain. He had also black short hair which was neat kept, with one right wing of sorts kept straight up in the air. According to the info given by Aristodemus, he was a Jujutsu Master, having the title of "Philosophical Warrior" among his various names earned through hard work.

Most curious, was the elder woman in the household of Ryouzanpaku. Kohsaka Shigure was... well, in comparison to their own class, a real **babe**. Her own measurements outclassed several of their classmates, even Ayaka. And yet, she had an eerily feeling that resembled Eva having a good time (Horror of horrors) around herself, minus the bloodthirst. She was their local Weapons master, with a purposely unadorned sword with her nearly all the time. Dressed in a short legless purple kimono, she had long black hair tied with a leather string into a ponytail, and having a near emotionless expression on her face too. Doesn't that remind you of someone as well? She also had a small pet with her, a small gray mouse with a small rosette on his tail. He seemed decent enough as well.

"What I really don't understand at the moment, is why you girls are here." Hayato continued, with Asuna and Konoka sitting in the front of the party and the other girls behind them, whilst they were waiting for tea.

"Well..." Asuna started off, scratching her chin, not really knowing what to say. "You could say that we were sent here on... an errand, perhaps?"

"An errand?" Akisame spoke up, having a very calm voice about himself. "On whose behalf?"

"Well..." Konoka continued, willing to show that she wasn't afraid of these martial arts giants. "...Are you perhaps acquaintances with...an Aristodemus-san?" She asked gently and the room went very, very quiet. "Um, did I say something wrong?"

"You know the Spartan?" Kensei asked them genuinely surprised.

"Well, yeah." Asuna answered. "You know him?"

"Do we?" Sakaki answered to that. "All of us have met him in our travels. The guy's incredible as a fighter."

"Apa!" Apachai shouted. "Apachai has fought him."

"You girls don't really know the full story behind him, do you?" Akisame asked of them.

"Frankly, we know his entire background." Asuna answered back to the Jujutsu user. "But how come you know him?"

"Each of us masters," Hayato began his big tale while his beautiful granddaughter Miu, being blonde with blue eyes and quite the body as well, served tea to everybody. "Have met Aristodemus whilst we were all making our own journeys. Whether it was with or against him we fought, he always proved the better of us. He always got a move for something, and always knew just that martial art, and above all... He never did more than what was necessary to defeat his opponents. Hence why he's known in the world of martial arts as simply... the Spartan."

"Chourou..." Kenichi, sitting there as well. "You fought with this, Spartan-san?"

"Well, I didn't win that one fight, but he didn't beat me at all that time, either!" Hayato suddenly went all cheerful and went all smiling. "We concluded it was a draw between us after our fight and then he stated that he didn't want to get into a serious fight with me for sometime." Then he started laughing, recalling Aris' face at the time.

"Right..." Asuna said somewhat deadpanned. "Well, he's the one who sent us, but he could have come here himself, really."

"Unless he intended for you to see the kind he hangs out with." Akisame defended his friend's reputation. "But what relation do you have with him?"

"Well, I was a young disciple to him about eight years ago myself." Asuna started off. "He taught me Muay Thai and Muay Boran when I was a kid, so I do know him from before. Everybody else here, just met him this year."

"He must have liked you very much then." Akisame spoke in a cool and friendly tone. "He's not really one to take on disciples willingly."

"Then how does that explain Rachel-san?" Madoka spoke up curiously.

"I hear that he was doing the favor of a friend in her case." Kensei answered the black haired cheerleader.

"Before we continue, I just got to ask you girls..." Kenichi spoke up in an odd tone to them. "Who are you really?"

"He doesn't know?" Asuna asked the masters, pointing at the disciple.

"We never got the chance to tell him." Akisame said, waving his hand in front of them.

"Not really... time to... talk about it." Shigure finally said, balancing a kunai with the tip on the tip of another kunai, whilst her pet mouse rested between her two hills.

"Tell me what?" Kenichi asked genuinely confused about the whole ordeal.

"Kenici-kun." Akisame said to the young disciple. "Prepare for the biggest secret you'll probably hear for the rest of your life..."

_**Moments later, a huge 'EEEEEEEEEEHHHHHH!?' was heard across the whole district, if not the city...**_

**

* * *

**

A/N: And we're gonna have to cut it short there. I'm sorry, but that's all for now. I did tell you that the chapter's length would depend on the plot and how interested I am in just that chap. Now, I need to answer some reviews

**Ansem Man: **I did intend to bring the HSDK cast months ago. How else to explain Boris Ivanov being in the story? Same thing with Alicia-chan. Don't worry though, that bunch will show up _much_ later.

**Dragon:** You're actually giving me praise? Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Dragon? Well, I thank you for placing this story in the top ten of the Negima stories, but let's face it: This story is** rubbish** compared to others. Take 'Ala Alba in the World of Magic' for example. How can I compete with that? The only good thing I have against her, from what I can see, is that I go for the _long term _plots. You can't just ask me to speed things up like that. I'd like to keep it like the long term. Incidentally, the readers will for sure get to see something that you wanted to know about earlier. Thing is, I still gotta deal with the Age thing.

**STD:** You were right. I did take a lot from ZKC, and I must admit, I didn't have much to go from when I started the whole Githyanki psychic stuff. I will make something similar to it, not just rip off from them. Also, I will write down why Nodoka and Hina didn't escape, but if you look to ch 20, you get a brief picture of what happened. I will describe it in detail eventually. Note also in ch 28, Nodoka was actually given her sword by that smith on Valentine's Day. I had her new dad go to the smith behind the scenes (I don't want to focus on original characters too much) to order the sword readily made. Now who said that I intended for things to go smoothly? I'm focusing on _politics_ here, and let me put it this way about it: Everybody hates politics. And about the cards, that issue will be revealed at the end of her adventure. Like I said, I go for the _Long term_. You just need patience.

* * *

-Straight from Rachel's maker, Nyrath: She is really a half-Tengu. I didn't know it when I first borrowed her, but now I know.

-Rachel was actually reciting a moon poem "Sadness of the Moon" by Charles Beaurogarde. I just took it through a Greek translator. Her great-great grandfather is a bit of an eccentric, so he might actually make sense of what she said, being a total nutcase himself.

-If you've done your homework, Denka is a Japanese Honorific, meaning literally 'Her Majesty'.

-Officially, there is no Command SAMBO at all, so I'm just gonna put it as the highest level of Combat SAMBO, the version taught to the Russian Military. Boris happens to be a very good user of it, second only to his master.


	31. Ryuozanpaku pt 2, Raydan's return

**A/N: **I feel rather stupid, really. I felt rather paranoid when I said that this story is rubbish. Well, compared to others, it **is**. It's just that I don't have the same skill or experience like the big guys. But at least I write in my own pace and style. I don't have romance as a main focus, although it's there. I also believe I made a rather radical start with this, and I did it to get attention at the start. After that, it's gone downhill, apparently. On top of that, do you know how difficult it is to make a proper crossover between just two things and make it good? And I got, what? At least seven things put together? Plus unknown number of minor things. That's – not – easy for me. And I also feel somewhat ignored by people here, which makes it even worse for my own confidence. I do get a lot of tips for this, but I do this not just for myself, but also for you guys. I do this for fun, not profit. But how am I gonna be prepared for making other stories if it feels like I'm being ignored? No offense to you who read this already, though I'd appreciate if I could get some more of you guys.

* * *

Fort Keithan was not much of a surprise for the party. Built out of wood and stone at the base, it was five squared, with a round tower at the end of each section. There were no tents, but buildings at the walls, not built for housing many men at first glance. There were two buildings for the soldiers, and smaller ones to house logistical men. The storehouse wasn't the largest, but according to some old blueprints that their Russian fighter recalled, this fort was likely to have underground tunnels for safe movement and storage places. That could explain the buildings' height. The headquarters for the Fort Commander was the largest building, built sideways and only had one floor level.

Inside, there were nervous men, in commoners' clothing, and holding some weapons, most likely those of their families, perhaps passed down through the generations. They numbered in the hundreds, but it wasn't an impressive number of hundreds. Some were standing on the walls, having bows, but most stood around talking to each other in the center of the fort. Once the party arrived at the fort and passed through the gate, the men stopped chatting and turned to see who it was. Neither side was impressed by the appearance of things.

Nodoka was the first one to make a move, namely get down from her brown horse, and the other riders did the same. "We need to get some stables for our mounts." Nodoka said quietly for her party to hear, and almost immediately, Boris shouted at the conscripts to take their horses (and Caribou) to where the stables could be. Once that was settled, the bookworm headed for the HQ of the fort. "First thing we need to do is to see what we have. I'd much like a full check up on supplies and men we have. I don't know about you, but I'm not one to head into danger without knowing what we got first."

"Understood." Rev'keth responded, taking a different turn from them whilst the humans went into the headquarters of the fort.

"That's supposed to be the Witch?" One of the conscripts asked another. "Doesn't look much."

"Looks can be deceiving." His comrade answered him. "You know the Rakshasan kids that do have magic? Those are monsters on their own."

"But she's not like them." the first retorted. "Those monsters aren't human. She's supposed to have magic, and yet she's not all high and mighty like the magi we used to have."

"You mean before they were wiped out by the Gith Emperor?"

"Quiet you. This 'Emperor' doesn't exist. He's just something the Githyanki made up to keep us in check. They all murdered our magi, because they were jealous."

"Shut up, both of you." A third talker joined in, with harsh whispers. "There is a Gith Knight here. He hear you talking like that, you'll be strung up, no matter what the Witch says about it."

"I hear he's from the underground. Been out to space, stuff like that."

"Who cares? Just don't let him catch you talking bad about the Emperor."

_**At Ryouzanpaku...**_

Shortly after his panic stricken outburst, Kenichi suddenly realized something and went laughing instead. "Now you're joking with me again, Shishou." He said at least to Akisame, waving his hand in a silly motion. "There is no such thing as actual magic."

"Ken-chan," Kensei said calmly to his disciple. "You're actually worried about that?"

"After living over a year with us?" Sakaki added also.

"Uh..." Kenichi started, as Mr. Bunny came by again running past him. "...I guess you're right on that point." He relented, submitting to what they said. "But seriously, you never told me before?"

"Well..." Akisame started. "...Magic isn't really something everyone should know about. They've gone to great lengths to make sure that it stays hidden in this modern world." The Philosopher ended, and the young disciple nodded to understand it all.

"Well, we got no problem with magic being revealed," Asuna said. "it's just that since we're kids, no one would take us seriously about this."

"Even so, we would be hounded by the press for the rest of our lives." Konoka added as well. "It was awful once already."

"True that." Misora said.

"But I trust you that Aristodemus-hanshin hasn't sent you unless it was personally." Akisame said, sounding somewhat stern.

"Well, let's just say that he has started putting not just us, but the rest of our group through some harsh training methods to prepare for something big." Asuna responded to the hakama clad man with neat hair. What? It really is neat hair.

_Speaking of which_

"Tell me again what we're supposed to do?" Yuuna shouted loudly over the loud thunder going on around them.

"We're to swim across this ocean," Kaede answered her, loudly as well whilst the waves were going around high rather violently. "in this thunderstorm, trying to find the boat where Aris-sensei is."

"And how do you expect we find him in this?" Haruna shouted, being in the ditch as well, along with Makie, Kazumi, Sakurako and Ku Fei. "We're stuck in the middle of nowhere and we're to find one frickin' boat?!"

"Have you noticed the very big violent waves!?" Yuuna shouted back at her, before a lightning bolt slammed down into the water not far from them, frightening them all. Facing down demons and magi plotting to destroy the world was one thing, facing the wrath of Mother Nature was another. Much more dangerous. You have a chance at fighting back the demons, at least.

"How about we try that direction instead of arguing?" Sakurako asked whilst still shaking from the slam.

"Right." Kazumi said, and all of them swam in the general direction that their cheerleader had pointed at.

"Oh my God!" Yuuna screamed as the waves got stronger and more violent with it. "What are we gonna do?!"

"Maybe if we snuck up on it?" Kaede asked them.

"Oh, sneak up on the ocean while we're in it?" Haruna retorted. "Brilliant."

"Can you see anything?!" Makie asked the whole group in general before getting water smashed into her face.

"There's nothing out there!" Yuuna shouted back.

"I can see nothing but sky, sea, sky, sea-aru!" Ku Fei screamed as they all went up on a wave before they came falling down with it down into the main ocean.

----

----

"_Aris. Vad du begär är nästan omöjligt att åstakomma." _A contact through a holoscreen said as Aris was having a fishing line in the stormy water, hoping to catch something.

"Så du kommer inte att göra det, förmodar jag, Karl?" The Spartan asked him, as they were speaking in Swedish.

"_Det sa jag inte."_ Karl responded to him. _"Jag gillar en utmaning. Se bara till att jag får mätningarna för flickorna så fixar jag det."_

"Hold on." The Greek responded at him, now switching to Japanese. "You want me to get the measurements of over thirty girls, just like that?"

"_Tja, jag skulle inte klaga om du lyckades."_

"Karl, förra gången du bad mig göra det, så fick jag blåmärken nere i stek-och-äggen, plus min ryggrad blev krossad i tre månader." Aris complained at his old friend.

"_You survived, didn't you?"_

"Yes, but let me be clear: if you want the measurements, you'll have to do it on your own." The Spartan retorted before a bell rang somewhere ahead of him. "Hoop! That's the signal!"

"_Tar du an lärljungar nuförtiden?" _Karl asked him. _"Jo förresten,"_ He asked whilst the Greek threw in a large fishing net into the water. _"Kan du hjälpa mig med mitt all-dagliga CV, för allt jag får på webbsidan är ryska bokstäver."_

"Jamen, skriv in din bank-kod," Aris said as he was pulling the net back to him. "Så försvinner de." He finished as he managed to pull up the girls who had been lost out at the stormy ocean. "How was the dip?" He asked them.

"Has anybody told you," Yuuna started, pointing at the Spartan. "That you are the most," She tried to find the right words there. "dangerous, psychotic and evil trainer there is and ever will be?"

"I believe that would make you number four-thousand, nine-hundred and sixty-one." Aris answered her. "Though you would be the first to add that 'ever will be' part."

"You keep count?"

"_No, these things come to him naturally. You girls aren't the first he's taken on to train personally on a large scale." _Karl answered the basketball player. _"But don't worry. This wasn't as bad as it could be."_

"Not as bad as it could be?" Makie asked curiously.

"Don't ask! Don't ask!" Haruna tried to stop the pink haired gymnast.

"_Yes, he could have strapped boulders onto your backs, arms and legs, chucked you out there, and had telepathically have the notes E and F together on tuba looping on inside your head whilst you were swimming to find the boat." _Karl answered Makie's question.

_Back to the others_

"So why is it that Aristodemus-hanshin has sent you here?" Kensei said, getting the others' attention.

To that, Konoka recalled that the Spartan had given her something to give to give to the Elders of Ryouzanpaku. She procured a scroll made out of small wooden strips tied together with strings and put it on the table in front of Hayato. But it was the Jujutsu master who took it instead and began to read. "Is this genuine?"

"It is." Asuna responded in a rather hushed tone. Akisame kept reading through, his glowing eyes still unchanging, but his mouth revealed his mood. It didn't seem well. "One of our own were taken by these guys." The redhead said as well as he kept reading on. Finally, seven pictures fell out of the wooden scroll, after having been rolled up into it. Apachai took them and shifted through.

"Apa! Apachai remember this one." He called out as he saw the picture of Boris Ivanov among them. Akisame handed the wooden scroll to Hayato and took the pictures from the big Thai fighter. "Apa, I was not done." The Thai lamented.

Shifting through the pictures, Akisame seemed to grow more and more disturbed. "Kenichi-kun," he finally said as he was done. "Why don't you and Miu take the girls to the places we know around here? Get them to know about our side of life a little. Besides, we need some more groceries."

_Shishou doesn't seem too happy about this... _Kenichi thought to himself as Miu rose up and he did the same. "Eh, yes, Shishou." He responded meekly as he gestured for them to follow him and Miu out into the city where the Ryouzanpaku lived.

_**At Fort Keithan**_

"Okay, I've done a complete list over the resources we have right now, and I think we could pull this campaign off." Rev'keth reported as he entered the HQ building, with Nodoka looking over a map over the area surrounding Fort Keithan (which was at the center), with the town of Huttasa to the south. Hina was looking through reports on the bandit activity. "We got about 4 chefs to prepare meals for everyone, 2 doctors, one smith for both weapons and armor, arrows and a fletcher, a running underground well, stored food for about 2 weeks, and we got 225 raw recruits outside. I took all the numbers into consideration. Oh, and we got one priest."

"Well, at least we're prepared for a long time here at least." Hina said, putting the reports away. "So far, this bandit army is grown to an estimate of 200, but that could increase for every day that goes by. Hang on, a priest?"

"One of Bahamut, the human god here. Religion plays a much bigger role here on the surface than it does for Earth in general." The Gith Knight answered her. "These people still believe that the gods have their influence on this world, and frankly from what I've seen... I think it's fair to call it that."

"At any rate, have you seen Symon-san?" Nodoka asked the Gith, still looking over the map, trying to find out where the bandit army could be from where they were.

"I sent him off back to town to get our weapons and armor." Rev'keth responded to that. "You did ask him to do so once we knew how much resources we got at our disposal. He ought to be back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Hina asked.

"No one would be foolish to move through the southern forest with the bandit threat present."

"Then we should make ready while we wait." Nodoka spoke up, turning away from the map. "Where's Boris-san?"

"He's outside, starting the training of the recruits already." Rev'keth answered her. "Bloody awful out there. Three guys were already exhausted when I came in here."

"_Listen up, scum!"_ Boris could be heard outside over cries of 'Mother', 'Somebody help us' among other things. He was not being nice on them. _"Those who do not follow orders are dead men. Those who do are well trained dead men! Your mother is not here to kiss and make it better for you!"_

"That sounds like rather interesting drill sergeant ranting." Hina noted deadpanned as the insults just kept building up. "What kind of training did he go through as a kid himself?"

"I believe it would be the one where you either win or die." Nodoka noted, recalling some harsh training that she went through back at Eva's resort. "I know I've gone through that myself." That comment caught her sister and her knight by surprise.

"But still, we ought to make good time with this start." Hina said in the end, before a padded armored human soldier came in exhausted and left a report to the Gith Knight standing there. Rev'keth took the report and read through it rapidly.

"Seems we also got Sverker's scouts at hand as well." The gith said before advancing on the map to point at a place about northwest of the fort. "A bandit detachment has attacked a small village here. The people there got a warning just before they struck, however. We need to house them here to prevent further harassment from the bandit army."

"You mean we need to get over there already?" Hina asked nervous. "The men aren't ready. We can't fight them in this state."

"Was I referring to the soldiers we got so we can get the people here?" Rev'keth countered back at the pink haired girl. "I'll go on my own. I can handle such numbers myself."

"Alone?" Nodoka exclaimed at the sound of that.

"I'm not a Sword Stalker for nothing. Besides, and I have to be blunt, it sure beats babysitting you two who can look after yourselves all the time." The Gith was awfully blunt with them. With that, he left.

"Some bodyguard he is." Hina scoffed at him leaving along with the exhausted soldier. "Did the Emperor hit his head when he chose him to join us?"

_**Down with the Kenichi meeting party**_

Seeing the two of the Dojo residents go shopping with just one bag was one thing for the Mahora girls. Seeing Kenichi carrying the massive bag on his back and having massive iron balls chained to his legs was another. Miu-san was doing all the talking and buying, whilst Kenichi-san was doing all the carrying. From the looks of things, people had gotten used to seeing him carry all that stuff on his back, and the iron balls were no surprise to them at all, either.

"That's rather amazing, Kenichi-san..." Misora had to praise the young disciple. "I didn't expect you to be this strong, really."

"Heh, thanks." Kenichi answered the nun, trying to look at her, but the big bag kept him. "I've been doing it for more than a year now, so it's not a surprise for everyone who lives here."

"A year..." Asuna said to herself, before chuckling and recalling some things from her own training. "It's not really easy for us either. Forty mile hike, lifting heavy boulders that could crush a tank, mid-air battles, getting thrown into blizzards and desert storms, oh and we get chucked into one really big blizzard in a mountain range, and told to survive on our own for a week..." Her ranting made the Dojo due to freeze up and think that one over. It also made the newest members of Ala Alba freeze up as well. "Ah, I almost died myself on my excursion in the snowstorm. Eva-chan can be so evil sometimes..."

"Survive on your own for a week?" Kenichi asked with genuine fear in his eyes. "Just like that?"

"Hmm-hmm." Asuna answered. "And you either make it, die, or quit."

_What would happen to me if I went through something like that?_ The young man thought to himself, picturing himself in such conditions. He found out for himself that he'd be pretty much dead at the pace he was going. "So... you girls have all gone through that?"

"Huh?" Konoka responded to his question. "No, only Asuna has of our group so far."

Chachamaru decided to inform Kenichi further. "Asuna-san is one of only four people who has undergone such treatment by the master. And she's one of two to have done it on her own."

"Who was the other one?" Misa just had to ask the robot of their group.

"That would be Setsuna-san." The robot answered her.

"Yo, Kenichi-kun!" A new voice in front of them called out to the young disciple carrying the bags. This was a young, dark skinned man, with pulled back hair, much like Sakaki back at the dojo. Except this guy was blond and not black haired. He had a... 'Cool-looking' face at least, and the athletic body to match it. In addition, he had another one with him, a large guy in white shirt in contrast to his own blue one. The larger one had sunglasses and controlled spiked hair. Not spiky as Fate's or Kotarou's, but it had a more bushy and thorny out look to it. "Out shopping again, are we?"

"Yeah, we were low on a few things." Kenichi answered the newcomers. It was then that they noticed the group of girls with them.

"Hooo, didn't know you had more than just Furinji-honey with you today." The first one spoke up, saying the word 'Honey' in English. "Hello there, girls."

"Hello." Konoka answered him, whilst Asuna nodded at him.

"Oh, let me." Kenichi said. "Girls, let me introduce you to Takeda Ikki-sempai. He's a boxer and former professional. And this is Ukita-sempai, Judo practictioner. Takeda-sempai, these girls are from Mahora Academy, a quite prestigious school in the Kantou area."

"I'm Asuna." The redhead spoke up. "This is Konoka," She gestured to her best friend who nodded at the two. "Madoka, Misa, Misora, and Chachamaru-san." She took her time in pointing at the other girls, finishing with the robot.

"Hi." Ukita greeted them with a simple hand gesture. "It's not like Shirahama to have more friends than just Furinji and the rest of our group, really. How come you're with him?"

"Well, we were originally sent to see his masters about something." Madoka answered the Judo fighter. "You see, we've just gained a master of our own, and he knows those over at Ryouzanpaku. So we were sent to send a message and then we were left to be shown around town."

"Hmm, sounds plausible." Takeda responded to that. "But just seeing Kenichi-kun carry large bags around doesn't seem very thrilling, does it?"

"You can say that again." Misora said, clutching her forehead. "I really wish there was something else to do here."

The boxer and the Judo fighter looked at each other at first, and then at Kenichi with a curious look at him. "No." The young man said to them.

"Why not?" Takeda asked. "Why shouldn't we show them that place?" This new discussion brought confusion to the girls.

"Nijima is why we shouldn't." Kenichi responded to that. "You know what he's like. He's gonna freak them out and scare them away."

"Kenichi-san," Miu asked the young man gently. "We could at least give it a try. It doesn't hurt to have them know the rest of our friends."

"Miu-san, you really don't know what kind of person Nijima is, do you?" Kenichi asked back at her, leaving her rather confused as well.

"What place are you talking about?" Asuna asked them all of a sudden. "And who is Nijima?"

"Let me ask you something in return, Asuna-san." Kenichi put down his bags and placed his hand on the redhead's shoulders to look her in the eyes. "Are you sure that you really want to know this one? In the face of knowing that all your secrets could be revealed in a flash?"

"Buddy, I've spent eight months with someone who could do that in a matter of nano-seconds if she wanted to." Asuna replied. "Now show us, that place."

_**Over at Negi**_

"_Alicia is clinging to you?"_ Said girl's mother asked him genuinely as he was having a talk with her about Alicia. This time, she had been discovered in his bed, wearing a cute nightgown. Negi swore to himself, she was gonna jump him in the baths, for sure. Question was only **when**. _"Just like that?"_

"Yes, Alicia-san is clinging to me like a koala does to a tree." Negi answered her. "She did so back at Arcadia, at Valentines' Day when she was on my back and in my dorm room, and this time, I found her in my bed." He complained to her. "What is going on, really?"

"_Well, I'm no expert on it,"_ Precia confessed to him. _"but I would reckon that Alicia is going through some psychological and biological developments as an individual and as a woman."_

"As...a... woman?" Negi really didn't want to know the answer to that one, but he had to find out what was going on with his latest 'Harem addition' as Haruna had put it.

"_Well, according to Freud, she's going through her Latency stage. You know that at that stage, children are starting to develop their realization of their gender. Of course, that also means they're trying to connect with the parent of the same sex, so I think we can't call that one accurate."_

"So, what are you suggesting in this case?" Negi asked her, regretting to himself that he asked that.

"_I think Alicia is trying to identify herself as someone looking for some sort of bonding with a male. Since her father is not around and I got work here on Arcadia, you are an obvious individual that she can try to bond with as a person. I believe it's also called Puppy Love."_

"What about Aristodemus-san?" Negi countered that point. "I think he would classify as her father."

"_Yes, technically speaking, since he invented the technology that brought her back to life." _Precia answered. _"But I don't think he would let her see him at work, with all the military action going on about. So, basically, she is clinging onto you for a few reasons. One I can see is that she hasn't really met any boys before. I didn't let her see any boys before she died back home where she was born."_

"And the other reasons?"

"_You were born a natural sex magnet, Negi-kun." _Was her brutally blunt answer to him. Negi felt somewhat doomed at hearing that. Then again, someone had mentioned to him once that he was actually the cutest boy in the world since Hello Kitty. Maybe it should be called Kitty Love instead?

_**Back to Asuna's gang**_

The place where this Nijima character was, was a large building, officially own by a group called 'Shinpaku Rengou' (Jap for Alliance), and it had the face of what seemed like an alien, most likely the leader of it, ergo: Nijima. He seemed to have long pointed ears, to begin with. And that grin he had wasn't looking up for his first impression with them. Nevertheless, it was quite impressive that Shinpaku had an official building of all things. Still, it was nothing compared to the castle they had.

"This is it." Kenichi told them.

"Come on, Kenichi-kun." Takeda said, trying to ease the young man's head. "We've told Nijima to stay out of affairs before and it worked then."

"Not this time." Kenichi retorted back. "Nijima is gonna kill to know this secret that these girls know."

"What secret?"

"You'll see, or maybe not."

The inside was pretty much the same as a hallway. There weren't any decorations about any fight victories at all, no 'All hail Nijima!' signs in there either. At least he was gonna be an honest person. The sounds of mitten hitting and wood clogging was heard further in, as the girls led by Kenichi, Ukita, Takeda and Miu into this building.

"Oi, you're late, Shirahama." A new female voice called as they came to the entrance of a training hall, filled with people training hard against training dummies and lifting their upper bodies up poles whilst their lower bodies were clinging onto poles. The one who called was a redheaded girl, with a small chest size and an average sized Japanese body. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans with the right leg missing, she seemed quite, nice looking in her own way. On top of it, she had a cap on her head, covering her short hair, and with green eyes, with pupils the same as a cat. "The hell took you so long?"

"Sorry about that, Kisara-san." Kenichi apologized to her. "Miu-san and I were out shopping, and we also got some visitors."

"Oh?" It was now that Kisara noticed the other girls that came in with them. "That's new." She paused her own kick practice to announce them. "Hey, everyone! Shirahama's brought new girls here!" That got the attention of everyone in there.

"And there goes our hope of being undetected..." Misora said deadpanned, seeing as everyone took a look at them, and vice versa. Most were out of their ordinary clothes, not school uniforms. One was yet another busty woman, having dark skin like Tatsumiya's, and having the same figure, only larger. She had a sports outfit on her with an orange jacket over it. And she was equipped with a short staff, made of wood. The staff was straight and had a sister part in her other hand, much shorter, but made to make a longer staff when put together. Quite brilliant design.

Another was a giant, easily one who would practice Sumo. He was of course, dressed in the Sumo dougi and having the sandals for the art as well. The fact that he was fat (what, he is!) was yet another clue. He was standing by some heavy, I mean, Heavy weights, that weighed possibly up to two hundred kilos. He was also standing by a short, lean and athletically built man, who had a very, cool outfit on him accompanied with a large hat with feathers in it. The outfit was brown and he himself had silver hair, being so long that if it wasn't for his face and body-build, he'd be taken for a woman.

A third one was a young blonde man with his hair spiked in the same manner as their own little favorite enemy (-_-Who are you referring to?). He seemed almost hostile to the girls' point of view, but the little girl next to him with a cheery mood killed that notion. He had normal clothing with lofty clothing and jeans.

Two others wore school uniforms at least, and one was wearing a hat. The hat bearer carried in addition a flag tied in a pole, showing off the symbol for Shinpaku. He was rather small in comparison to the other one, large and broad he was, with pulled back hair whilst the flag-bearer had rough hair. Both were black haired regarding their color.

Finally, Nijima himself. It definitely was his image that was on the outside and on the flag that the bearer carried around. Dressed in a school uniform, an all dark blue one with a single line of buttons going up the middle of the torso, he also had a mantle draped across his shoulders too. He certainly was an ugly one. Large pointy ears, and a nose as pointy as an arrow, he also had a sinister look about him. He sat high and mighty upon a raised throne as well to try and bring home the point that he was the top dog there.

"Oh... Kenichi. Decided to bring others into Shinpaku?" He asked in a sickening tone to the young man as they approached the throne.

"Drop it, Nijima." Kenichi retorted back at the ugly human. "These girls are not here to join your group. I'm just showing them here."

"They're from Mahora Gakuen." Takeda mentioned as well. "Plus, they got a master who is a good friend with Ryouzanpaku's masters, so it's okay for them to be here."

"Nice to meet you." Konoka greeted the head of Shinpaku. He merely nodded back at her.

"Hmph." The blonde one said behind the girls, with not so much of a friendly tone. "Doesn't look much."

"Hey, show some respect there, Nacchi." The little girl next to him said, making him freak out at the nickname. "They seem nice, really."

"Don't call me Nacchi!" He scolded her, but to no avail.

"Ignore him, he's got some troubles of his own." Nijima said, getting down from his chair. "Welcome to Shinpaku Rengou, girls. Any reason why you're here?"

"We're just waiting for word from Ryouzanpaku's masters, or our own, then we'll head back to where we came from." Asuna answered him. "That's it. No fighting, no challenges. We're just biding our time."

"At any rate," Kenichi started off to try and stop any hostilities arising. "Takeda-sempai figured it would be good to introduce them here in case we are in need of help ourselves. This at least is Asuna-san." He gestured to the redhead in front of Nijima. "The others would be, Konoka-san, Madoka-san, Misa-san, Chachamaru-san and Misora-san." He mentioned as well, each giving a gesture of approval.

"Them, giving us help against YOMI?" Kisara asked him. "Hmm... I'd like to try that out myself. But we ought to respect their choice."

Konoka's cell phone bleeped and she found a text message in it addressed to them and Kenichi. It read: _"Head back to Ryouzanpaku. Negoes almost finished." _"Guys, we need to head back. Someone from our side came over to talk with the elders back at the dojo."

"Oh!" Asuna said, turning back to the healer and then off to the front door. "Well, they're probably also wondering where the groceries went too. Come on, Kenichi-san, we gotta hurry."

"Right, coming!" The young man said and went to get the bags. Saying their goodbyes for now, the group headed back to Ryouzanpaku. Unfortunately, a certain commander was following them back to the dojo.

_**At that time at Fort Keithan**_

"Open the gates, quick!" A guard, who had survived Boris' training method, but covered in bandage, called out as he had seen wagons accompanied by two riders. Some unharmed men opened the gates to let the caravan of wagons into the fort. Symon had returned with the weapons and armor they needed. He had also acquired something for himself: A new black mare horse, with saddle and all. And he was not the only rider coming into the fort. "We're back!" He called to Boris, who nodded at his arrival and ordered a recruit to alert the girls.

Moments later, Nodoka and Hina came out, surprised at the speed it took for Symon to get their equipment so fast. "Symon, how'd you do it so fast?" Hina asked their dual wielder, as he had two longswords on his hips, one at each side.

"Two things." Symon answered her. "First, I happen to be what people call 'Merchant Prince'. My own father owns the largest trading company in all of Samasal. Second, I have studied how to track through wilderness. Getting from Huttasa to out here without being detected was easy-peasy." He finished as he got off his new mare. "And I got this girl from the market as well. New mounts. Called horses, I think from what I recall of your own. Traded in my old Caribou and all to get her."

"Well, I'm no horse expert myself," Hina said as she took herself a good look at his black horse. "But this, is one gorgeous mare." She said as she patted it on the neck, gaining some nudging from the horse.

"She seems to like you." Symon chuckled out of himself, seeing the two. "I also brought someone with me. Someone you know." He turned around. "Hey, Reiden! Over here." He called to the other rider who was on a Caribou.

"Oh, you again." Hina groaned as she recognized him as the one she had thrashed back at the Warrior Guild. "Here for a rematch?"

"No, no, nothing of that, honestly." He said, waving his hands in front to prove he meant no ill. "I came here to apologize."

"Apologize?" The pink haired girl asked of him.

"I...was a fool back there, ma'am." He said, turning his head down. "I had grown with that women are not fighters at all, that they shouldn't carry a sword or a spear in the first place. Well, after you bested me, I guess I had to change my mind. Allow me to give you my apologies and ask you of a request."

"A request, you say?"

"Yes. I would like to learn... how to... use a... Katana, in its proper way." He answered nervously. "Now, since the sword is not from this world, as I was told, and you're the only one who knows how it is handled, naturally I came to you."

"So you want me to teach you how to use the Katana, right?" Hina asked of him and he nodded at her. Some thinking later, she huffed to herself. "Alright. I'll teach you."

"Oh, thank you. I won't let you down, master." He felt almost demeaning calling her master.

"Uh, Sensei works just as fine. That's how we address our masters back where I and Nodoka live. Oh, yes. I'm Hinagiku Katsura. Hina-sensei works just fine if that's okay to you."

"Sensei..." He echoed the word, and then smiled. "I like it. I am Raydan, son of Pryon, descendant of Diorek the Dragonslayer. Raydan works just fine." He said to her. (**It's spelled Raydan, but pronounced Rei-den) **"I am a Monster Hunter by profession and uprising too."

"Monster Hunter?" Nodoka asked him this time.

"Oh, it's just as the name says. You hunt monsters." He answered the bookworm. "Most of the time it's -

* * *

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh Shit! Now I'm **really** going to die~!" Vito screamed as he ran for it from a giant Frost Worm, the bane of adventurers and other monsters in the freezing mountain range that he had been repositioned in.

* * *

"But, it evens out in the end." Raydan finished his lecture on what it's like to be a Monster Hunter.

_What was that just now?_ Nodoka thought to herself.

_Why does it feel like someone is about to die just now?_ Hina thought as well.

"Why are you looking like that?" Raydan asked the two girls.

"Oh, pay no attention to that." Hina waved it off. "Plus, since I got someone to train hard now, let's get to it! Get into that band of troops over there!" She told him.

"Yes, sensei!" He called back as he ran over to the recruits, along with his stuff.

"Nodoka, you can go back to study some tactics if you want to." Hina said to her little sister. "I just found something else to do."

"Uh, sure." The mage responded before heading back to the headquarters, being followed by Symon.

"Um, lady Nodoka, if I might be so bold, but could I have a few men of my own, so we could keep an eye on the bandits?" He asked of her as they walked to the headquarters.

"So we can keep an eye on them?" Nodoka asked at him.

"Well, personally I don't think Lord Sverker's scouts are good enough. They're soldiers, not trackers. And we only got one report so far regarding the bandit activity. I can keep you informed three times a day."

Nodoka thought about it for some time. "Okay. But use this." She handed him a half-a-bead. "if you put that in your ear, you can use telepathy. Just touch it when you want to contact me and say what you see. It's a lot faster, and it's been tested to go over several kilometers."

"Why thank you, milady." Symon responded to her and walked off.

_

* * *

_

From the journal of Nodoka Miyazaki, February. Day, lost track, Tu'narath

_We're making progress at least. Lord Sverker of Huttasa has asked me to put down a bandit army threatening to pillage the town. And he gives me and Hina raw recruits to work with. Symon was good and fast enough to bring us the equipment we need. He bought Linothoraxes for the men and he got himself a black mare. I'll go in a Linothorax as well, once we get to the actual battle. Should the men survive Boris' training regime._

_Hina's also got herself a disciple. Raydan seems nice enough, he even apologized to her about the time back at the Warrior Guild. He admitted that he was wrong about her and he asked her gently to train him. At least we got ourselves another strong ally. He also has this nobleman look about him. And yet, he seems sad over something. I can tell. He's telling all those jokes he did out there to the other men because he's hiding something. I could find it out, but I'd rather not._

_Boris is as stern as ever. He did seem pleased enough that he had been granted chain mail along with bronze arm, leg and torso protection over the mail. It looks good on him, really. Overall, he's the one who should be doing this, not me. He's the one who can give orders and lead soldiers. What about me? I can't lead soldiers. I can barely fight on my own. And I've always depended on others. I'm depending on Boris to help me with the soldiers. And yet he says that he's more one who follows orders, not to give them. Hina gives me pep-talk, but I feel that's not going to be enough. And I need more than just commanding skills to become High Queen, IF I become High Queen. I need another tutor, someone here on this world who can teach me politics, etiquette and all the other forms I need to rule._

_How did I get dragged into this? I'm first awaiting a transport back home one moment, the next I'm destined to become a High Queen over a vast area the size of Russia. I'm really beginning to miss home. Maybe I should go see the priest we have here at the fort. Hope he's not one to get angry at people._

_What would Negi-sensei do in a situation like this?_

**

* * *

**

A/N: There. That's that chapter done, and I can take a break for some time now. That's at least two new OCs introduced. I'm sorry guys, but I asked two of friends on Skype: aranox12 and Vastler75 to make them. Aranox made Symon, and Vast made Raydan. Kinda went behind your backs there. But don't worry, your characters will show up. Just need to find a place for them.


	32. Nodoka's results, Ryouzanpaku final pt

**A/N: Right, now things kick off with action. But before I continue: Makuhari-Fan01, if you didn't get it the first time; Thank you for the Ala Alba Soundtrack. I can finally imagine Tu'narath completely with it, as well. Shame I don't have a sense of music, otherwise I'd make a soundtrack for this story, too. I've also been looking for some fanart of this if there and I find none... Not surprising really, but still, they would surely be awesome.**

_From the journal of Katsura Hinagiku, February, Day, lost count, Tu'narath_

_Well, that's one more in our growing band of merry men. Raydan "Hunter". He's descended from a dragon slayer, who apparently ate the dragon's heart. I know that dragons are magical from stories I've read, but in real life? I don't know what will happen. But that's not important right now._

_What is important, is how we beat the bandits, and when we're gonna leave this planet. I'm no student of tactics, but I do hope Nodoka'll think of something. Hang on, how come we're relying on her for tactics? Maybe it's got something to do with that Magi are often considered strategists of an adventuring party. Huh, never thought of it that way._

_A shipment for me came this evening, from the underground Capital. Apparently a gift from someone high ranked. Could be Dad. I have yet to open the package yet, although I think I know what's in there. Boris got his armor from Symon's shopping trip. He hasn't put it on yet. I think he needs help with it. I'll do that in the morning._

_Rev'keth came also back tonight, along with several refugees from the bandit attacks. They were roughed down, but they'll live at least. But some of the men we have, had families out there. We ought to put a stop to this before leaving Huttasa behind us._

* * *

The next day, at Fort Keithan, Nodoka is sitting in the fort's chapel, put together carefully by the soldiers. Religion does seem to hold a powerful hold over the surface people. And just to prove it, the chapel had been put in the very center of the fort, built round with enough space to house some 60 people at a time. Inside, there was only one door into the chapel, which was pointing to the fort gates, and the single room was filled with benches in front of a single altar holding two candles.

_It feels just like the church back home..._ Nodoka thought as she found it so serene. Somehow, the design had special made flutes built into the walls or roof, so that the wind would play soft music constantly. _Gives me time to recap our time here... In fact over a lot of things. I'm stuck on a different world, none of my first friends are with me, I was enslaved and tortured by a hostile general, I was saved and adopted by another general and now I'm stuck here on orders of the Emperor himself..._ She should have seen her face at that time. _Just send me home, please..._ "Where and when did it all go wrong...?" She asked herself, leaning her head on the bench in front of her.

"Oh!" An elderly male voice said startled at the sound of her own voice, making the young Witch look up to see their priest. "You startled me there, milady. I didn't notice you being in here."

"Oh, it's my fault, really, Father." Nodoka apologized to the priest. "I don't make much noise whenever I enter a holy place."

The priest only nodded at her. "Well, no harm done, at least. Is there something troubling you?"

"Yes, a lot, really." Nodoka confessed to the old holy man. "It's about... me being here in the first place. Why was I brought here? What purpose do I have on Tu'narath? I'm no great magic user. I don't even have any natural talent for it. And I haven't even studied it for years, unlike the magi back home where I was born..." She paused to give a sigh about herself. "Who am I trying to prove to by doing all this?"

"I see." The priest said with concern and serenity in his tone and walked over to sit on the bench across the aisle next to her. "You are concerned about if you really are up to the task, and fear that you do not have what you already do to fulfill this purpose."

"But I am not up to the task, Father." Nodoka continued. "I don't have very powerful magic."

"And yet it **is**magic." The priest interrupted her. "This prophecy didn't say how much power or skill you needed to take the throne, as long as you have it, that is all you need. No one is demanding that you know just an exact amount of magic of yourself."

"But that's going to happen. Everyone will ask of me that I use my magic to wreak havoc on enemy cities." Nodoka put up. "They will demand of me to lay waste to lives of thousands of innocents, women and children. I can't do that. Not after seeing the refugees we took in yesterday."

"So, don't, then." The priest said soothingly. "Don't answer those demands. Just do what you want to do and, eventually, everyone will see what kind of person you are. One cannot change that which is adamant in its beliefs."

"I suppose you're right there, Father." Nodoka gave in to his sayings.

"Oh, I wasn't right, milady." The old priest said, and pointed to the altar where a new thing had been added. "It was Lord Bahamut who was right." He was pointing to a small statue of a magnificent looking dragon. Unlike those back home, it was quadrupedal, and its frontal limbs formed the wings. Magnificent horns decorated his head, and its snout reminded Nodoka of some old dinosaur she once saw in a museum. It was colored silver-white and yet shimmering like gold at the same time.

"A dragon? Humans here worship a dragon?" The Bookworm asked the old priest, getting closer to examine the beautiful statuette.

The priest chuckled, not bothering to hide it. "Well, humans has always revered dragons as something granted from above. Isn't that similar to your own home?"

"Yes..." Nodoka responded to that. "But generally, dragons are at the same time not revered as divine, so in the eyes of the religions of my home see dragon-cults as abominations, something to get rid of."

"That sounds rather harsh." The priest lamented, walking to stand next to her. "But Lord Bahamut is a kindred one, he has watched over us for as long as we can remember."

"Pretty much every religion I've heard has said that." Nodoka retorted. "Not to sound offensive, Father, but gods don't look out for mortals. There have been countless times when people has asked for help from them. Nothing happened."

"Oh." The old priest said, disappointed and his head turned down. "I guess I was hoping for too much there, I think."

"I should get going." Nodoka said, gently giving the statue a stroke. "My father just sent me books about military leaders and strategy. If I'm to lead the men here to victory, I need to get started straight away."

"Of course." The priest said, before patting her head and making hand gestures. "May Bahamut guide you on your path. I don't know for sure now if it'll help, but it's something at least."

"I'll admit that." Nodoka responded before walking out. Unseen by both the humans, the eyes of the small statue glowed faintly blue...

_**Makes you think, doesn't it?**_

Down on Earth, the group of disciples of either martial arts or magic, arrived back at Ryouzanpaku's gates and closed it behind it to prevent scouring eyes. Unbeknownst to them, Nijima had followed them. And he had company. "Hmm... very odd for others to enter Ryouzanpaku besides us and Kenichi." Nijima noted, holding a PDA and leaning against the corner wall.

"Yeah, there is something odd about those girls." Kisara noted, as she, Takeda, Ukita, Tanimoto (the blond one with spiky hair), Freya, Thor and Siegfried were with him. Freya was the busty dark skinned girl, Siegfried was the one with the hat and feather and Thor was the big Sumo giant. "They let Kenichi in on their secrets and not us."

"That's probably because the masters allow it." Tanimoto noted against that. "But still, why would they accept middle-school girls like them here in the first place?"

"That's what we're gonna find out." Nijima said with a grin to his face. "We'll climb the wall. Someone help Thor up on the wall. Sieg and I move in first to see what they're up to. You join us once Thor is over." With that, Siegfried helped him up over the wall before jumping over himself whilst singing. Wait, what? I swear, the guy was singing 'La, la, la!' as he jumped over. The two were followed over by the rest of the team, who stopped by the wall to help their Sumo wrestler up. Their commander and his singing bodyguard were sneaking up towards the dojo.

* * *

"What? You're sending me with them to Mahora?" Kenichi asked his masters as he was sitting in front of the girls from the prestigious academy.

"Well, it's not permanently, Ken-chan." Kensei answered him first. "It's just for some time."

"We've been on the phone with Aris as well about this. He said 'Okay, let me have a look and I'll see what I can do with him'." Sakaki added as well. "I'm not all for it, but somehow, the elder is keen on the idea."

"Ho, ho, ho!" Hayato's voice scared them all (apart from the masters) from behind, making each of them hide behind a separate master. "Miu should accompany you as well, Ken-chan. It's about time you two learned something together for once."

"Oji-sama, are you sure about it?" Miu asked her still blonde grandfather. "I mean, it's Kenichi-san YOMI is after, really..."

"Don't worry. With the training he'll get from Aris, he'll be untouchable by YOMI. But honestly, you should catch up to him in that sort of training as he'll certainly get better than you." Hayato reasoned with his granddaughter. "But don't worry, I'll be going with you this time to make sure he'll keep you alive."

Kenichi froze up at hearing that Hayato would come along as well. Bad memories came back to him, dark memories of how he was trained in the Dark Forest to learn his fighting style, when he was forced to learn heavy balance among rooftops and forced to jump across the rooftops.... He ended up in a position which reminded people very much of how babies are when they are still being inside their mothers' bellies. "I love to live, I don't wanna die, I love to live, I don't wanna die..." He mumbled and repeated over and over to himself.

"Seems the trauma has come back for him." Akisame stated, obviously, seeing their disciple shiver and quake on the tatami floor. "He gets these from time to time." He informed the girls.

"I think we can manage with that." Madoka said. "I know I was quaking when I had my introduction to magic and everything."

"Perhaps." Chachamaru said, recalling a few events that led to some prior members of Ala Alba being introduced to magic. "Ah yes, I recall now. Kohsaka Shigure-sensei." She addressed the black haired sword-master of the dojo. "Aristodemus-san asked me to give you this. One of the reasons why I was summoned along with Asuna-san and Konoka-san." She handed over the silk wrapped staff, as the girls had seen it as. "He had been given this by a group called YAMI in order to seal some sort of bargain with them. Learning that you were looking for these, he decided to hand it back to you, instead." She passed it to the older woman, who took it graciously and bowed in return.

"Thank...you. Pass it onto...him." Shigure said pleased at the kind gesture.

"Well, with that out of the way, perhaps we should get going." Wilhelm's voice cut them off there, revealing the elder demon to be floating in mid-air, dressed in his all black outfit and hat hanging onto his right, no, left boot. "I was sent along with miss Shirabe to ensure everything went smoothly over the negotiations."

"Wilhelm-san..." Asuna said, looking at the old man. "I take it you're floating in mid-air because you couldn't take off your boots?"

"Pretty much, and since I couldn't take them off and yet I had to talk to the masters here, I figured levitation would be best." The demon answered him. "We'll be leaving shortly, we'll just wait for miss Shirabe to-" He caught two presences outside the dojo hall. He quickly motioned for everyone to remain quiet, before going into Silent Speech, a hand gesture language they've been practicing in the resort, when they weren't doing martial arts or magic training. _There are two intruders just outside. We'll need to capture them first before we can move on._

_We're going to need some sort of distraction to throw them off-guard, _Chachamaru responded to him and the demon nodded in return. "-to come back from her bath." Wilhelm finished whilst the robot explained their current situation to the other girls.

"Whilst we're waiting for her," Akisame picked up the idea further, seemingly able to know Silent Speech perfectly. "Why don't you show us something you girls can do?"

"Ah yes, we got our, er, pactio cards with us." Asuna said, before nodding to Madoka and Misora before rising up to get their artifacts out. "The Pactio system is basically a Sword-and-Shield idea for the magi's protection. Me and Madoka are combat partners. Misora-chan is a support partner, capable of running really fast."

"I've yet to find out what my artifact can do," Madoka said, wielding her hammer in a way similar to anyone with a war hammer used for two handed, meaning it's slinged over the shoulder. "But it can pack one hell of a punch."

"The Pactio system not only gives us powerful artifacts to use, but we also get a huge boost to our own bodies, improved strength, smoother skin... even an increase in **speed**." Asuna finished, the signal for Chachamaru to burst out of the dojo, surprising the two intruders immensely, before the first one took off with some immense speed himself.

"We've been spotted! Fall back!" Nijima the runner cried out to the others as he ran for it, before getting caught in powerful vines catching him from below. "What the-?!"

"Nijima!?" Kisara exclaimed, seeing their commander caught in vines that burst from the ground, ran towards him and got attacked Chachamaru, causing some distance between them. "You!?"

"Kisara-san..." the robot echoed the redhead's name before taking her battle-stance. "I can't let it out. We need to take steps against being discovered prior to it all."

"Let what out?" Kisara asked the green haired girl whilst taking a Taekwondo stance. "I don't know what you're talking about, crazy girl with big breasts!" Note: Kisara has small breasts herself, and she's got an issue against girls who has big ones themselves. Chachamaru happened to be one such girl.

"Well, your commander knows." Shirabe's voice answered Kisara, as the horned girl came out of the Ryouzanpaku woods, wearing only a covering magi cloak, and not bothering with hiding her horns, or altering her hair color (at this stage, I'm seeing her hair as purple, like Misa's) in front of mundanes. "We need to be precautious against sneaking eyes and ears." The blind musician finished as the rest of the gang inside emerged around the trapped Nijima and the arriving members of Shinpakou Rengou.

"Who... who are you girls?" Tanimoto asked, as he was shocked over seeing the redhead girl from before wield a massive sword made for two hands in just one, and the short-haired one with a large war hammer from Europe. "You show up out of nowhere, you claim to be friends with Ryouzanpaku and now you attack us with weapons that I do for one recall you didn't have previously. So who the hell are you girls!?"

"Watch your tone with them, young man." Wilhelm's voice cut him off, the elder man appearing behind the blonde man. "These girls have defeated many powerful opponents on their own. Some of which you martial arts children would never even dream of facing."

"Uwoh!" Ukita, their Judo performer, recoiled at the sudden appearance of the old man. "Where did you come from?!"

"...We're just simple student girls from Mahora Gakuen." Asuna answered him, but she decided to tell him also what was normal for Mahora students as they knew it. "Simple students who have been beset by monsters, magic beings and plots to destroy worlds since we discovered that our own ten year old **teacher **was a mage himself." _Screw secrecy, time for disclosure in these times._ She thought as they took in the information. "That's what we are. Don't question that, nor our actual duty and orders to make sure that we remain hidden."

"Oh?" Nijima sounded rather intrigued by that. "So you magic girls are willing to reveal your info if you didn't want to be public?" He asked with a tone that nearly sent shivers down Asuna's back. "In case you're wondering, I linked my PDA to several local Internet sites where they discuss theories of the world. So if you don't want to become public knowledge, you better take us with you back to Mahora. Have we got a deal?"

"Tough talk, coming from a guy who is about to be crushed by my vines." Shirabe stated and her vines tightened around Nijima, making him react in pain. "Normally I'm forbidden to take human lives, and yet, you don't seem human at all. As if you were an alien yourself."

"I've been told that a lot, my dear." Nijima responded coolly, but his expression that he was in pain killed that off. "So, do we have a deal?"

Konoka's cellphone rang, and the brunette picked up to answer. "Who could call at this time? Hello?"

"_It's fine." _Aristodemus told her through the cell phone. _"They can come with you. But just the captains and their Valkyrie team."_

"Aris-sensei?" Konoka exclaimed and she turned away from the others to talk more privately. "You do realize what sort of trouble we could be in for this." She told the Spartan on the phone.

"_I know how to handle blackmailers like him. He wants to know? Let him know it. **All of it**."_ Aris told her, and that last part was to indicate something specific. Konoka didn't say anything else and closed her phone.

"They can come. But he did say only the captains and the Valkyrie team." Konoka told them and as a first reaction, Shirabe let Nijima off from her vines. Roughly.

"Let me get my clothes on, first." The musician girl said whilst walking away from them, since she had left her clothes back at the hot spring since it was an emergency.

_**Fort Keithan HQ**_

"Miyazaki-san." Boris entered the headquarters now, now dressed in his armor. He had a chain-mail hauberk underneath the undecorated bronze cuirass with shoulder guards. The hauberk protected his arms as well, going well together with the bronze bracers and fingerless leather gloves. The bracers were bound together with leather thongs on to the chain-mail sleeves. The hauberk didn't defend his legs equally well, so that was completed with greaves made of bronze as well. He had at least his military pants underneath those. He kept his boots on. He didn't want a helmet, since that wouldn't show who he was if he was gonna be a military leader if he fought on the ground.

He found Nodoka wearing the clothes she had when out treasure hunting with Craig and Aisha and the others (minus the breastplate), and reading a small book. "Boris-san." She acknowledged him coming in. "Something you want to talk about?"

"Well, I just came to report about the men's status." Boris stated, maintaining his salute at her.

"At ease." Nodoka told him, and he relented. "What about the men?"

"They seem determined now with the knowledge that some of them have lost families out there." Boris reported to her as she kept reading the book. "But they have also been talking. That you do not possess magic, that you're just some propaganda tool used by the Githyanki to keep the morale of us humans so the Gith could have good fight on their hands for once."

"Let them talk." Nodoka told him. "Once we've dealt with the bandits, I'll hear what they have to say about me then."

Boris kept quiet there for a moment before speaking up again. "...You seem... different, than before, Miyazaki-san."

"Do I?"

"Yes. It's quite faint, but... you do have a more, authoritative and battle-hardiness to yourself. Not what I originally assumed when I first saw you." Boris admitted. He did seem to falter in his stern look. Nodoka didn't respond immediately, but closed the book at least with a bookmark on the page she was on before turning and answering.

"Boris-san, I'm not going to lie to you. I have seen battle, I have seen death up close when it happened. Ever since I became a mage, my group's enemies have only been out to kill me. Just me, no one else. I do have to have learned how to fight and work as an intel officer in our group. So don't, talk to me like I don't know what it's like in a real life battle."

"Understood." Boris answered that, taking it as an order. "...Can I be honest with you on one thing?" He asked her then.

"Yeah, sure."

"I can read people just by looking at them, and then compare them with the attributes they got to animals or something like that. I admit that I was comparing you to something for some time, and I think I've come to an accurate account now."

"Hm?"

"You... are a seal." He answered the bookworm. "The seal is clumsy on land, but magnificent in the sea, always associated with magic as long as I can reckon. That's pretty much how I see you."

That almost got her laughing, but at least she chuckled at that. "You're quite interesting for being a myrmidon."

"Myrmidon." Boris echoed that word. He knew what it meant. "Yes, that's pretty much what I am. Someone who follows orders blindly, without question. One who just do things instead of asking what effect they will do on society... but since my separation from my old comrades, I've started to ask myself what effects my actions have."

"Your comrades?" Nodoka asked the big Russian.

"That's a story for another time, but for now, let's just say I spent most of my life with some really bad company, and that was the only life I had until I was excluded. Nobody missed me when I left them."

"_Lady Nodoka!_" Symon's voice cut inside the bookworm's head and she excused herself from the Russian to answer their ranger. "_We got trouble. The bandits are moving south now to Huttasa."_

"Anything on them? How many?"

"_Roughly about 400 of them now. My own team is harassing and slowing them down at the moment, but we can only last for so long. If we want to save Huttasa, now is the time."_

"Anything else?"

"_Yeah, food and drinks are on me if we get through this." _Symon said jokingly before he cut off the communication there. But it was enough for Nodoka to take action now.

"Boris, get the men ready. We need to get going now." She ordered him and once she blinked, the Russian was no longer there.

_**In the Resort**_

"So this is where you guys practice..." Kenichi said in awe of the great castle as they were approaching it in the resort. He, Miu, Hayato, Nijima, the captains of Shinpaku and the Valkyries, Freya's own team of female fighters with weapons of various kinds across Japan, had accompanied the girls of Mahora to their training resort, the great castle. "Heh, it's a lot of space here, at least."

"Yeah, and we can't get out for a full day." Asuna explained to them. "And before you ask, this works on the opposite of Urashima's Dragon Palace. Here, time is delayed, so that one full day cycle of 24 hours is just one hour outside." She explained to them.

"That's mighty impressive..." Takeda noted. "How come you guys seem so fine?"

"Not really, we age faster in here as well." Asuna said. "The only one unaffected is Chachamaru-san, because she's a robot."

"At any rate, you kids should know that the world of magicians has dangers of its own." Hayato, the great old man, said with great concern as they reached the end of the long bridge. "Much like the world of martial artists, there are always rival magi out for power over each other, from what I recall of my experience with it."

"You've been to the world of magic?" Matsui, the flag-bearer (who came along just because he's Nijima's personal entourage) asked the great elder.

"No, I was never there myself. I did meet men who had travelled there before." Hayato confessed. "Cities among the clouds, mighty monsters to fight all the time, ruins filled to the brims with treasure and traps... I really did want to journey there in my youth."

"Well, the sights are still there, Hayato-san." Asuna told him. "Though the gates are destroyed at the time, we managed to get in through an unused gate still in function. You're in for a fight if you take that route, but hey, you're a master, aren't you?"

"True." Hayato chuckled before he caught a hostile presence. "Get down!" He yelled at the fighter kids before jumping up to cause a shock-wave of energy in the air, even before the others could react, but feeling it made them react at least.

"An enemy!?" Kisara exclaimed, taking her Taekwondo stance.

"Someone here out to kill us?!" Thor said with the same tone as the redhead kicker.

"No, it's..." Ukita said, looking into the cloud of dust that had occurred when Hayato had blocked the incoming attack. Out came a young man with white spiked hair and in a light blue school uniform, and emotionless eyes, much like Chikage was, most of the time. "...a kid?"

"So this is why you are late, Kagurazaka Asuna, Konoe Konoka." He said with a soft, and easy tone, yet harsh at the same time. "You brought more people in here as well."

"Um, couldn't really be helped." Asuna tried to defend her side of the argument. "Oyaji said it was fine to bring them here. You should take it up with him about it."

"...Hmph, guess it can't be helped then." Fate said, as he shrugged for once, still having his hands in his pockets. "Might as well try them out right now. You girls can go on ahead." He instructed the girls and they went on ahead. "You too, Wilhelm-san." The old demon followed suit. "Now, why don't the rest of you show me what you can do?"

_Holy- Such energy... _Takeda thought as he felt the amount of mana pouring through the white haired magi. _He must be a powerful Sei fighter himself. But what can he use, apart from magic? And what sort of magic is he using?_

"To answer all that, Takeda Ikki-san," Fate caught him by surprise as he had read his mind. "I am perfectly able to read the minds of those unprepared, and I'm highly versed in the usage of Geomancy and Hydromancy. In other words, I control earth and water to my command. But I won't use any spells on you, yet."

"Heh, that was scary..." Takeda noted down to himself as he felt his own fighting spirit almost crumble at the sight of this one.

"And yes, I am a Sei fighter. You should prepare yourself." Fate said further as he took a step closer to them.

"Heh," Tanimoto stepped forward to face Fate, taking his battle stance. "I don't care who you are, but I don't intend to let you beat the crap out of us as if we are rag dolls."

"Oh?" Fate seemed **almost** amused at the sight of Tanimoto coming forward. "Are you sure you wish to fight 1-on-1? You could get severely injured."

"Heh. I've handled things bigger than you. That's pretty much how you wizards do it too, right?" Tanimoto said holding his stance. "I'm Tanimoto Natsu. They call me Hermit."

Fate didn't say anything at first, but accepted the challenge. "I'm Fate Averruncus, one of the Master class magi of Castle Leuben Schult." And even before Hermit could react or even echo the word 'Master', Fate had done a shundou to stand right next to the taller man. "And I know Piguaquan and Bajiquan just like you do."

"When did-" Hermit asked before Fate unleashed his barrage of attacks against him, forcing the taller one back. _He's not joking at all! _Hermit thought as he fought on the defensive, using his limbs to defend the ferocious attacks of the little kid. _He really is a master class fighter. I can only defend against him so far and yet... _Hermit managed to catch a glimpse of Fate's eyes piercing into his own. _What the!? _The Japanese one managed to separate himself from the Magi to think straight. _His expression is not changing one bit at all! Almost as if he wasn't human at all! Why am I even shivering?!_

"A good exercise." Fate said, his energy fading away. "That was enough for me to see. Nicely done, Tanimoto-kun."

"Eh- oy!" Hermit yelled at him, taking his stance yet again. "I'm not done with you yet!"

"_**How about me, then?"**_ A chilling female voice said from behind him, before the Chinese Kempo fighter got stuck in strings and was left hanging in the air by some unknown force. Or so he thought, as he noticed a small Caucasian girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing quite a provocative outfit herself and she was holding up her hand in a strange manner. "That's very rude, Averruncus-kun, starting the fun without me..."

_WHO!?_ The Shinpaku team thought to themselves seeing the little girl holding down Hermit.

"Oh, hello there, young ones." She greeted them, with an evil smirk to her face. "I'm the master of this castle and I'm not a wee little girl."

"I thought we were gonna see Aristodemus-san, here!" Kenichi shrieked, seeing two monster class fighters and magi.

"But I am here." The Spartan's very sudden appearance freaked them all out, as they had no memory of when he showed up. "Sorry, that usually happens whenever I want to play a little joke on youngsters."

"Eh? You're Aristodemus-san?" Miu asked the shorter person, who would perhaps enjoy the view of her. "You seem shorter than I expected."

"I get that a lot." The Spartan responded to her. "Okay, before we make any further introductions, I'd like to know who Nijima Harou-kun is."

"That, would be me." Nijima said trying desperately to gain some composure out of this, but the aura that this new arrival was emitting was just too much to handle, even for his personal barrier. (Wait a minute, he's got one without the technology?) "I'm head of the greatest fighting organization in all of Japan, Shinpaku Rengou." He boasted highly with pride at the shorter one.

"Really? Doesn't look much." Aris retorted with a smirk before looking Nijima straight in the eye after performing a shundou to end up right in front of the alien commander. "Okay, listen up, and listen _good_. We're allowing you in because there is something worse than YAMI and YOMI together coming this way, and I'm in need of capable fighters and commanders. You're let in because of that very reason, but if you let one word slip to other people, mention magic to mundane people, and I pretty much got _and_ can give the authorization to kill you. Are we clear?"

"Um, are you so sure you want to do that? To someone else's kid?" Nijima tried that angle.

"Let me be clear." Aris repeated. "I can and **will** kill you if you step out of line. Are we understood now?" Nijima took a loud gulp and nodded, before the Spartan backed away from him. "...Nice seeing you again, Hayato-kun."

"Ho, ho! You still look like an old geezer since last time I saw you." The elder Furinji said, with much joy at seeing his old friend. "Got a lot of pressure on yourself?"

"You can tell?" Aris told him sarcastically. "Yes, I'm under a lot of pressure. The whole frickin' Mundus Magicus is practically ordering me to make sure that we don't get discovered at all, when it could have been much easier if they had reverted to disclosure instead. The Senate is demanding that I pull back and focus on defending the Magic World instead and the governments won't give me clearance to land troops down here and I haven't got many supporters here on Earth to begin with."

"Whew," Ukita whistled at the Spartan's resilience to crack under all that pressure. "You seem very tough to withstand all that."

"Thanks. But unless I get some evidence of some sort of invasion, which I'll tell you about later on, I can't get aid from the Old World at all. You're pretty much everything I've gained these past few days." Aristodemus told him further. "Now, with all the introductions done, which one of you is Shirahama Kenichi-kun?"

"Eh, that would be, me, Aristodemus-san..." Kenichi said meekly before the Spartan poofed up before him.

"Hm..." The Spartan circled round him and checked the arms on him. "Not bad, not bad at all..." He flexed Kenichi's arms on his own, and checked the legs as well. "Nice. You've done a good job with his body, Hayato-kun."

"Well, I haven't been training him personally that much, but we all did hard work building up his body." Hayato excused himself.

"Let's see how he's built." Aris said as he had taken off Kenichi's jacket and shirt off, revealing his well muscular and firm upper body. Eva got herself an eyeful of him, and so did several of the female members of Shinpaku. Let's just say, that they enjoyed the view. "...Oh my. I think I might have trouble with this." Aris said, whilst inspecting this torso.

"What makes you say that, Aristodemus-san?" Kenichi just had to ask.

"I'm a bisexual ephebophile." Aris responded to him. "You asked."

_Wait, Ephebophilia? _Kenichi thought to himself to think what that word meant. _Doesn't that relate to... --Nooh!--_ "ARGH! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" In a desperate attempt to save his own chastity to be taken by an elder man, he jumped high into the air. Unfortunately, he had also jumped in a curve, resulting in that he was gonna land outside the courtyard. "Shimata!"

"Kenichi-san!" Miu cried out, preparing to save him, but she was held back by Aris, who placed a hand in front of her.

"Hold on." The Spartan told her. "It's time you guys met the Star of this place." He finished as a new kid landed on his two feet as if he had jumped off a foot high ledge. Dressed in Chinese clothing and a long tattered cloak, he was carrying a very shocked Kenichi in his right hand like the former was a mere feather. He had red spiky hair and a pair of small round glasses finished his outlook. "You're late, you know that?"

"Nope, I was just finishing up my private time over on the cliff over there." The new arrival replied, pointing to the cliff about two miles from the castle, (think of where Anya is complaining about his progress in the manga) giving Shinpaku Rengou yet another mental shock of how good these guys were.

"Oh, sorry, didn't know that." Aris responded to that. "Everyone, this is the main disciple here; Negi Springfield, graduate mage at the age of nine 3/4, teacher at ten, kung fu expert and frankly one of the most powerful magi you'll ever hear and know of. Say hi, Negi-kun."

"Um, hello there." Negi had put down Kenichi on his own two feet, and bowed at them all.

"When do magi student graduate really?" Someone asked to be sure they heard right.

"Around twelve. They start out at four-five years of age." Eva answered that one, as she had never gone to magic school. "And whatever you do, don't threaten his students."

"Right." Kenichi said, swaying from one side to another in an attempt to regain his stability. He may be the strongest disciple of them all, but even falling some 400 meters is starting to stretch it. "Hello there, Negi-kun... look forward to train with you..." Then he fainted out of fright.

"Any remarks on him, Hayato?" The Spartan asked his giant friend whilst the others checked up on the fainted disciple.

"Yep. Ken-chan has absolutely no talent at all when it comes to martial arts." Hayato answered him. _Look at the bunny go......!_

"You really got no sense of ability, young man." Aris lamented on Hayato's pick of an apprentice of the old ways.

_**Preparations**_

"Get a move on, men!" Hina yelled at the rushing soldiers they had available, dressing themselves in the Linothoraxes that Symon had bought for them, along with green tunics and clothing. Green was a neutral color on Tu'narath, showing that one was looking for money. In the military sense, the green was to symbolize mercenaries. The bill must have been high for Symon, this was heavy armor. Okay, the cuirasses were made from linen, but they still had bronze scales worked into their abdominal area. Bronze helmets, oval parma shield with bronze coating over them and finally, 10 ft. tall spears with a bronze counterweight to the iron tip on top. They were heavily armored for this battle.

Hina was arguably the most well prepared for this, wearing her armor. Forged out of a black metal, her new armor was a bit of a tight fit for her, and yet it was easy to move in for her. The armor covered her entire body save for a few spots, namely the area above her small bosom, the under-side of her arms and a small narrow area on the thighs. That last part was covered by a neat white skirt underneath the segmented strips of black metal around her waist, an open area being in the front to allow running. Her new shoulder pads were the same as the waist strips, being segmented. The back of her cuirass had an inbuilt scabbard for her wooden Masamune blade. Finally, the smith who had made this armor, had also made a traditional Samurai helmet, complete with a golden inverted Omega on top to signal the men where she was. She had finished this outfit herself with a white sash as well. "Put on your armor, and fast!" She yelled at them, as they were racing to get it on good and proper, whilst also quickly. "You want to be heroes of Huttasa? Then we shall fight them!"

Rev'keth, in his own Lamellar-mail armor rushed up to her. "I didn't expect the bandits to move so fast." He said, panting, trying to catch his breath. "And that really is some neat armor, Lady Hina."

"Thanks. I think it's from Tou-san, but I don't really know, nor do I care at the moment." Hina responded. "We got a battle to fight now."

"And win." Rev'keth chuckled. "Lady Nodoka wants me to lead the cavalry. She's been making battle plans since we learned of the enemy advancement."

"I'll go check on her. Boris! I want every man here suited up and ready for marching next time I see them!" Hina yelled at the Russian, who began barking orders immediately. "Sisters need to check on each other from time to time." She finished as she went past the chapel towards the headquarters of Keithan. The pink-haired girl did notice her new apprentice preparing himself, clad in leather armor instead of the heavy Linothoraxes like the rest of the men had, for easy movement. He had a quiver of arrows on his left side of the hip, whilst having a bow nearby. A few other weapons were nearby, a spear and an axe, a dagger on the back of his hip, and finally a Kite Shield next to him. He was wielding his Katana, giving it a few swings from the lessons she had given him. But since she didn't think he was ready to use it yet, she decided to walk over to him. "Raydan, I must ask you to use something else this time."

"Sensei?" Raydan looked at his teacher. "But I'm ready, I know how to use this now." He held up his Katana to try and prove it. "You taught me."

"And you're a good student." Hina said, taking the Katana and its scabbard from him. "But a few hours of practice is not enough for a real life battle. You need to observe how it's done first, and then, I can show you the more advanced moves." She put the scabbard in her sash on her left side, upside down as per usual with a Katana. "Stay close and I'll show you afterward with the techniques. Okay?"

"Er, okay..." Raydan sounded almost disappointed, but instructions from the teacher were absolute, in accordance with the Warrior's Guild and his new Russian companion. He went back to put his shield on and ready his bow for battle.

"Nice scarf, by the way." Hina commented on his light blue scarf that was fixed around his neck. She went now fully to the headquarters, walking up the small stairs and entering through the front door. At the sight of her sister, the pink-haired girl stopped in her tracks. "Whoa."

"Courtesy of the smiths here." Nodoka said as she had finished donning her armor with the aid of a few refugees who had arrived the night before. Her own Linothorax was made more out of leather than linen, giving it a dark brown look. The traditional shoulder-pads were clearly visible on her, not to mention a well decorated cuirass with boiled leather as the outer layer and actual Steel chain-mail as the inner. This armor left her upper arms exposed, yet beneath the elbow, she had thick leather armguards that went all around the arms, ending finally with fingerless gloves. Her sword belt with the dagger as well went around her wait as usual, and her own adventurer's outfit covered her thighs that weren't protected by her new greaves that only covered her lower legs, finishing it all with sleet boots. And finally, to show that she was in command, the bookworm had been given a Roman officer-looking helmet, complete with the horse-hair crest. Except that the hair was made out of actual Githyanki hair and dyed black and white. It even had cheek protectors. "I'm not expecting to go into combat myself, but you never know when close quarters can occur." Nodoka said as she modified a strap on her new armor that was a bit tight.

"Er... right." Hina noted down, having somewhat big white eyes seeing her like that. "I didn't know magi donned armor themselves. I always expected them to go lightly clad."

"Now that's a bit too much to expect, Hina." Nodoka retorted. "I got a friend who dons plate armor and is still able to use spells."

"Forget what I said, just now." Hina commented on that. "Rev'keth said you had a plan to fight the bandits. Any hints on that you can give me?" To that, Nodoka produced an arrow with glowing white feathers on. The Samurai of the two took the arrow and examined it. "You're getting better at your magic, I take it."

"Somewhat." Nodoka answered her. "It's just an illusion, it'll cancel by nightfall, I reckon."

"More than enough time, then. You don't think they'll see through it?"

"Perhaps. But that's up to their leader, really." Nodoka countered that argument.

"Anything else what to do? Any specific plans?" Hina inquired from the bookworm.

"Rev'keth is taking charge of the small cavalry band we have here. I ordered to get the beasts from the wagons to make more mounts to ride on. I'm taking the rear guard and command the archers. I want you and Boris to lead the infantry." Nodoka said so they would know their positions. Walking over to the map displayed on the wall, the bookworm continued. "We'll be meeting them here, at the big open plain with the forest right behind us. At first, the archers will place themselves in front of the infantry. Once I give the order to attack, the infantry will move up, using a crescent moon formation, holding it constantly."

"But if we use a crescent moon formation, wouldn't that bulk under the bandit advancement?" Hina asked the bookworm.

"See all those books on the table?" Nodoka pointed to a pile of books with various approaches to warfare and tactics and on the side leaned a small book entitled 'Art of War' by Sun Tzu. "Dad sent me them. Several are biographies of old generals; Caesar, Charles Martell, among a few others. I base this on what Hannibal Barca did at Cannae."

"...You aim to that we surround them with the infantry making a crescent in the opposite direction, and then Rev'keth can come in from behind?" Hina inquired of her. "That's pretty clever. Any drawbacks to it at all so far?"

Nodoka looked down at the floor and then out to the far window to see the men. "...We can lose a whole lot of soldiers out there, if I had to point out one flaw. We haven't trained them in any kind of formation, and they're uncertain if I really am able to use magic at all. I'd take that as a drawback as well. We lack their support in us."

"I guess you're right." Hina said, nodding her head. "But come on, morale or not, a town is depending on us. So we better get to it."

"Right." Nodoka said, picking up her helmet and preparing to leave as well, with a magi cloak over her armor. "Do you think I should skip the helmet?" She asked her sister. Hina took the helmet and put it first on Nodoka, then took it off, then put it on again, before taking it off fully.

"Skip it. Look better that way." Hina commented on her not having a helmet when they exited the HQ. Boris was true to his word and every man who could carry a spear and shield was in full battle-gear was ready to march in. They were looking at the two girls as they were walking by the line to get their respective horses. Getting up on hers first, Hina decided to address the men. "I know we don't know each other, but let me be clear. Huttasa is depending on us for this. So for Huttasa's sake, let's work together, okay?"

The men discussed between each other to see hear each others' opinion on them. "Well, we could try at least." One man in front answered for them.

"Seems we got a start on something here." Hina nodded to acknowledge that fact as the bookworm rode up next to her. "First of all, lets get a few more things be clear. Nodoka here is in charge of this company." She said harshly at them, gesturing at her sister. "And when she's not around, I am. You'll follow our orders. You don't question them, you just follow them. Understood? Good. Okay, I and Boris here will take command of the infantry. Our own Gith Knight will lead the cavalry unit. Nodoka'll lead the archers."

The men stood at the ready, listening closely to the speech she was giving them. "You are free to make actions of your own, as long as they fulfill the orders we give you. We stand on the defensive today, and let them come to grips with us. As long as we work together, we can win this." Hina continued as the gates were opening behind her. "And remember, DO listen to the orders. I'm not shouting because I like the sound of my own voice. When orders are followed, victory comes with it. Now let's move out!" She yelled at them and made the horse make a 180-degree turn around to get out of the fort.

"Move it out!" Boris yelled at them at the same instant. "Double time!" The effect was that every man in battle-gear with arms marched quickly, with Hina and Nodoka at the front, Rev'keth and his group of 30 cavalry men, riding on caribou and big horn sheep, and finished with Raydan and Boris in front of the Infantry and the archers, up to the remaining 183 men, 60 of them archers.

_**The site of battle**_

Their army arrived at the field with the forest behind them much faster than expected. Rev'keth had split off from them with his riders and disappeared from any visible area that they could think of scouting ahead off. Boris yelled at them to form with archers in front and the infantry behind. Once everything was set on their side, Hina dismounted from her horse and had a soldier tie him up to a nearby tree. Since she was going to lead the infantry alongside Boris, she needed to be on her own feet as well. "Well, now we need to wait for Symon and his group to show up." Hina told a vigilant bookworm.

"Don't worry, I told him where we were supposed to meet them. He'll try to lure them here." Nodoka responded before hearing a horse's galloping. Symon's black mare sprinted across the field followed by 27 more men, only 12 of them were those that Nodoka had granted him. As soon as their ranger, as he seemed to be, joined up and took Nodoka's offered hand, she inspected the rest of the men. "I thought I only gave you 12 men to scout ahead with."

"You did." Symon responded. "Then we met the other 15 from the nearby villages. They had banded together to try and sabotage the bandit progress. Thing is, they didn't know how, so when we met them, we sorta joined together."

"Mm-hmm, and the bad thing?" Nodoka knew that one without a shadow of a doubt.

"They used to be about 50 men strong, originally." Symon answered her, with a sad tone in his voice.

"May Bahamut guide them to his palace on Mount Celestia." The priest, who had accompanied them here, said quietly, and raising his hand and pointing his index and middle finger upwards to the sky whilst his remaining ones were flexed inward. And the men who heard him, bowed their heads in silence.

"All the more reason to stop these bastards then!" Raydan shouted, having heard it as well, and this time, the men shouted in agreement. And just then, the ground began to rumble in response.

"Here they come." Nodoka said quietly, and moments later, they saw the bandit army, initially rushing after Symon's men, but they slowed down once they saw the real threat. Symon did say that they numbered 400 men, but it would seem they had got rid of about 30 of them, but the army leaders (Nodoka, Hina, Boris, you know) didn't bother to count them all. "Raydan." The bookworm called the latest member of their team to her side. Once he got to her, she procured the arrow with the glowing feathers to show him what she was thinking. "It'll work."

"Very well, then." Hina's disciple said as he took the arrow, readied his bow and loosed it away. The field and space between the two armies was about 250 meters apart, the arrow hit the ground in about only 140 meters ahead of their own side. "Is that it?" He asked out loudly, and it didn't take long before the other side started laughing loudly themselves. A closer view of the bandit army, showed that they were mostly human, with the occasional Githyanki and Hobgoblin in the rabble. "Are you sure about this?" the monster hunter asked the bookworm. She nodded at him.

"Archers, up front." She called to the soldiers and they stepped forward in front of the infantry. The bandits saw this and responded with that they moved what they had as cavalry, plus some infantry men armed with clubs and spears. They didn't seem to have any swords or the like. "Ready your bows." Nodoka instructed them, and they did so, whilst the enemy moved forward against them. Their advance was slow, but it gradually gained up speed against them. Still, Nodoka had her hand raised up to prevent anyone from firing ahead. But as soon as the first rider came past the glowing arrow, she chopped it down fast. "Loose!" She yelled and scores of twangs came in response.

The first volley of arrows, hit down hard on the first wave of bandits, who had been stupid enough to break up their formations. They were clearly working separately with several leaders in charge. On a grand campaign, that was good, but on the same battlefield, that would be fatal. Over at the bandits' side, the bandit leaders realized it was a trap.

"Make ready again!" A Human leader cried out for the men to do.

"No, wait!" This one, a Githyanki held him back. "We can't just rush into those volleys."

"But if we stay here, they could march straight over that field and attack us!" The human countered. "Our arrows can't get through all that bronze."

"Ah, but have you forgotten? I happen to know magic. I can blast away those archers whilst we wait, and I know a few fireballs to take out their infantry once they move in closer." The Gith countered, and to prove it he was making a small fireball emanate in his hands.

"Oh, so you're going to hog all the glory for yourself, huh?" another human bandit lord snarled at him. "No chances, we attack!"

"YEAH! EVERYONE, CHARGE!" The first human yelled and the full bandit army threw themselves into the field.

"Blast these human idiots." The Gith said to himself and decided to give them cover with his magic. "You want to play, soldiers? Have a few of these." He said as he fired off a fireball at the enemy lines.

"Look out!" Hina yelled at the soldiers, seeing the fireball coming at them. "Fireball!" The infantry raised their shields in an attempt to protect themselves from the blast, only to see that the fireball was blasted out by an opposite force that had gone against it. "Huh?" The pink-haired girl looked up first to see that her sister had eliminated the threat. "Oh, sorry we forgot that you're supposed to use magic."

"Don't falter." Nodoka said calmly. "I can use my spells to block their mage, but I need you men to stand firm and best the rest of them. Can you do that?" She asked the men.

"Oh, hell yeah we can!" A soldier shouted in amazement.

"We're gonna drive them back!" Another shouted in the same tone.

"Archers, get back up front!" Boris yelled out the others and the soldiers reclaimed their original positions. "Loose your arrows once they get past the glowing arrow!" He shouted at them, and they did so at that order.

"Alright, Nodoka!" Hina praised the bookworm. "That was great!"

"Yeah, I know." Nodoka said with a smile, before turning down the mood. "But now they know that we got a mage on our side, so they're likely to swarm me now."

"...I'm gonna assume that from experience, right?"

"Pretty much." Nodoka responded as the archers kept firing at will at the incoming bandits. "Okay, that's enough." She called to the bowmen and gestured for the infantry to move up instead, moving up rapidly against the bandits. "Symon, I need you here with me in case they intend to circle around."

"Understood." The ranger said in response to that.

"Crescent moon!" Hina screamed at the soldiers as the bandits, armed with various light weapons, rushed at them. "Form into a crescent moon!" The soldiers understood that, and the center rushed to form a not-too-deep moon formation. As both sides clashed, there was a stalemate at first, since neither side could get the upper hand in this battle so far.

"So you're the Witch of Man, huh?" The same Githyanki bandit leader who had fired the big ball of fire, asked the young bookworm as he had circled around with his own small band of bandits, humans who appeared brainwashed. "You don't look much. I was expecting someone more, voluptuous."

Nodoka didn't say anything at first, taking in this one, seeing as he was leading brainwashed bandit fighters. "Not willing to talk? Fine, then." The bandit chief said and flicked his fingers, and the bandits attacked.

"Come on, then." Symon appreciated that he was seeing some more action against these bandits, but considering Nodoka's presence, he stood on the defensive this time. But he was good. He dodged their attacks at him, and countered with just one sword that he had on himself. A longsword, it seemed to be made out of Steel and glittered in the remaining sunlight. The bandits weren't good at dodging, so they were swiftly cut down. "That the best you can do? I reckon you be a hypnosis psionic, able to brainwash your enemies."

"You're correct, Living Death..." The Gith responded to that, referring to one of Symon's own nicknames as an adventurer on the planet. "You've done a great deal eliminating my fellow bandit leaders, but don't think you'll walk away from this fight."

Nodoka was curious about the nickname, but this wasn't the best time to ask whilst the battle raged on in front of them, so she decided to call on Rev'keth instead. "Barca, it's your turn, now."

"_Got it."_ The Gith Knight's voice came to her and she decided to walk up next to Symon.

"Decided to join us, Witch?" The Gith asked her, and she didn't say anything. "Fine, that's the way you want to do it..." He started off with firing some magic missiles that glowed bright red and they went straight for both the humans. Nodoka had learned how to dodge them and Symon acted much like a dancer around them.

"My turn." Nodoka retorted at him and fired off a magic arrow straight at the enemy mage.

"That's not gonna work!" He shouted and deflected it, only to find Symon charging at him, sword drawn.

"But this will." The 'Living Death' said as he had pierced through the mage's stomach. "You forgot to have some defense for yourself with your minions. That's the key to being a successful mage." The Gith mage didn't say anything at all, just snarled, and then collapsed under the pain. "Should I treat his injuries?"

"Do so." Nodoka instructed him. "I have a hunch Lord Sverker is willing to have someone in charge to have behind bars." She finished as the rest of battle raged on.

The battle was over rather quickly. Rev'keth had come in from behind the bandit army astride his own horse and his cavalry with him. They weren't many, but the shock was enough for the bandits to surrender. At least, those who had survived the tough infantry and their tactic. The rest was just a simple mop-up of bodies, and of course, looting of the bodies. As much as she didn't want them to, having the men take the spoils of war was her only bet on having the men on good morale at the moment. They were chatting amongst themselves about what they had found, whilst some men were keeping the remaining bandits as prisoners.

"We lost a total of 50 men today." Rev'keth reported to the bookworm as she had approached him. "Although this was expected against a force larger than our own, losing a quarter of one's army is tremendous."

"And how many are injured?" Nodoka inquired of him.

"Round about 37, all lightly injured." He answered her as they passed by some men who were looting the bandit bodies. "The bandits who surrendered number to about 67. And before you ask what will happen to them, let me tell you: Execution, hanging. That's the way people run things on the surface."

"So we're just gonna abandon them to the hands of others?" Nodoka asked as she was joined by Hina and Raydan. Boris was off somewhere else at the moment. "We can't do anything about it?"

"I didn't say that." Rev'keth replied. "But it's up to the prisoners if they want it some other way."

"...I'll talk to them. I got something in store for them." The Bookworm said as she decided to head where they kept all the prisoners. This needed some mean conversation skill...

_**Somewhere else**_

"And you who were so worried!" The Emperor complimented on Ashracai, as they had watched the whole battle from the Emperor's personal monitor hall where he kept his eyes on the surface world and enjoy a little snack at the same time. "But she did it so gallantly..." He stopped to giggle with joy. "Such fun from a little girl! I can't stop shivering!"

"Are you really supposed to be the Emperor of the mighty Githyanki race?" Ashracai snorted at him with anger. "And yet you act like a cat inhaling silvervine."

"Oh, that sounds fun too! I should try that as well!" The Emperor said with the same tone he had about Nodoka's success.

"Will you ever grow up?" The Arch-mage snarled at him.

"Oh, you're such a worry-wart, Ash." His superior retorted at him. "Between all the work I do running the Imperium, I do need to express myself differently."

"That's because _you_ never bothered to have any kids yourself." Ashracai said. "That's the point about growing old."

"Perhaps. But I do have plenty of offspring. I just don't take any into my household. You know the culture we have. Open breeding for everyone and everyone can get a kid to buy if they want to."

"True, but that's not the issue here." Ashracai actually scolded the Emperor there. "What is the issue here-"

"Are the other forces here that is scrying on her right now." The Emperor retorted in a happy tone, catching the Arch-mage by surprise. "I'm not stupid, old friend. I keep my eye open for everything that can affect her."

"Hmph." Ashracai had found himself dumbfounded yet again by the Emperor, whose mind-set he had tried and failed more than once to understand. "So you seem to be, as always. Have you figured out who they are?"

"Simple on the first two." The Emperor answered him, before a holoscreen showed, revealing three different sources. "The first one is actually old man Rufus. He's had his eye on her ever since her announcement. I think he's gonna see her personally."

"That would make a lot of sense." Ashracai said, agreeing with his old friend. "Rufus is the only one left from that time. Back when they also paid heed to Azuth."

"He's still a servant of the old god. Not once has he backed down from his faith." The Emperor noted as well. "Do you recognize the pattern on the other one?"

Ashracai ran his finger across it, gaining a potent energy emission from the wavelengths captured. "Ah yes... How could we forget her in the first place?"

"It would seem that _Vlaakith_ is also paying close attention to young Nodoka." The Emperor remarked. "Someone doesn't want to hand over their scepter."

"But that's most likely going to happen anyway." Ashracai countered at that.

"A prophecy works two ways."

Then it hit the Arch-mage like an avalanche being caused in the Alps (down on Earth) by someone with large lungs sneezing. "You think she'll actually ally herself with the Gorgon?"

"Most possibly. The Gorgon is the one Nodoka needs to face to get the scepter, and Vlaakith's the one holding it. So basically, the Gorgon is the champion for Vlaakith." The Emperor answered quite soothingly. "I guess we should take action as well."

"You know that we can't extend our own personal protection for a small human girl." Ashracai snarled at that. "What would the Cabal say if they caught us with that?"

"How should I know? I'm the one in charge." The Emperor said. "They're just running the Imperium for me. But you're right. They could spread the word to the rest of the empire. We don't want that. But let's focus on this one." The sovereign pointed at the third energy source. "The power behind it is immense, and yet I can't verify who or what it comes from."

"I guess we can assume that this one is planning something that involves her. I just hope it's friendly."

I got my doubts, but I want that as well to happen." The Emperor said with concern and walking away from the panel. "Overall, this is a good start for her. We'll continue observation for now. And do send your girl some more things to learn, even if that was well done."

**OMAKE**

"Uwah, Theo-sensei." A female student was amazed at the new teacher at Mahora Academy who had arrived a few days ago. "I know I might sound a bit personal here, but you got an amazing body! How do you keep in form?"

"Fufu... it's a secret." Theo responded calmly to that. She was wearing a simple uniform consisting of a miniskirt and a white shirt on her. Those earrings really helped with making her look human. At least the horns and ears were gone. Otherwise they'd pass up as neat personal additions. "A woman doesn't let out on her secrets."

"So that's how it is." the student responded to the princess' comment, before a few more came up to her. Seems she was rather popular at Mahora. Over at Negi's side... (not very far away really)

Negi was walking across the court-yard, getting some fresh air. "Hmm, uwah, I needed this." He said to himself as he stretched out his arms in relaxation, even if he was still officially working. It didn't take long before he heard some people chatting and some running. More specifically, running towards him.

"Negi-sensei! A little help here, perhaps!?" Theo yelled as she was followed by several students, all wondering how to get the secret to get a body like hers.

"EH? Theo-sensei!?" He exclaimed seeing all those students after his wife. Technically, they were still married.

**

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**

A/N: And that's that. Longest. Chapter. Ever. Seriously, I've never written such a long chapter before. Now let's cut it here, and I do need to get a break from this so I can see if I can get a job. Starting to run out of money...

**That aside, YES, Aris would kill Nijima if it came to it. Honestly, there really is a lot of pressure on him and let's just say that he's not the only one who would resort to such methods to protect such a big secret. 'til then, Good Night!**

**- I forgot to mention this: Fighters from the Kenichi manga are roughly set in two categories: Sei and Dou. Sei is the silent one, where you use skill and tranquility as your weapon in battle, maintaining your calmness to yourself whilst you fight. Fate happens to be a textbook example of this. Dou is the one where you use your emotions in order to push yourself to the limit, achieving more than your body can originally. Kotarou is a good example of this. Neither category is the better, FYI. Now, with Negi, I'm not sure. He could be Sei with his normal attitude, but Magia Erebea sends him hurtling into Dou. Maybe he's undecided so far, I don't know.**


	33. The Kingdom of Zuriith

**A/N: And, we're back! Now, time for two more OCs to show up here in the story, made by Ansem Man and tamelessimagination. Heh, I'll see what I can do with your guys.**

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In Eva's resort, now the Shinpaku Rengou group of the whole minor army assembled there, was brought up to full knowledge. They were slightly disturbed to find that Boris Ivanov, one of those who had tried to kill them in the past, was among those who had been abducted by the Githyanki, but Nijima took it as a sign that they could move forward now. Kenichi countered with saying that Boris was no longer part of YOMI, a smaller group designated as a training engine for a group of martial artists who believe that killing your opponent in battle is the right path. As much as that is gruesome to hear, the Githyanki were still considered the bigger threat to the whole of society.

But before any training could continue for them, the Spartan wanted to see what Ryouzanpaku's disciple could do against his own two proteges. Basically, a sparring match between Negi and Asuna together, vs Kenichi and Miu from the exalted dojo. The two pairs found themselves standing in the frontal circle section of the courtyard, with several onlookers standing about, including the old Elder from the Dojo, standing next to an actually aged up Evangeline and the Spartan. Averruncus was floating above the three other masters, cross-legged and arms crossed as well.

Kenichi was clad in his battle outfit which was made from his masters altogether: a sleeveless Dougi outfit from Sakaki and Akisame, whose martial arts, Karate and Jujitsu, sported the Dougi, with a special made chain-mail underneath, made by Shigure. Dark green or black Kung Fu pants from Kensei would allow him more mobility than the Hakama that comes with Jujitsu, and he also had hemp strings around his wrists from Apachai, the old protection gloves of Muay Thai. Finally, a gift from the Elder himself, a pair of Tekkou, segmented arm-guards of a special metal, embraced his arms on top of the hemp. Miu just wore a Dougi on top of a purple spandex outfit that was a **really** tight fit.

Negi was in his Chinese outift, the one with the round skirt-like ornament on top of his own pants, and the shirt on, naturally. This time it was colored somewhat light blue with white strings and edges. Seems like **someone** decided to give it a different color look to it. Asuna had her own armor on, the Goth loli style one. No matter how much she pleaded, she would always wear that by Eva's edict.

"Um..." Kenichi started up though as they were facing one another. "I got a bit of a problem with this setting..." He confessed as he scratched his cheek meekly.

"What?" Negi asked him before anyone else can.

"Well, I got nothing against a sparring match or something like that, it's just that... I'm not one to fight against women or children." That last part set everyone who didn't know him into blank stare mode at him. "What? Is it really a bad thing to have a personal honor?"

"No, there's nothing with that..." Kotarou, having a similar system, started up, and leaving it at that.

"It's just that it's a fatal weakness in our world." Fate finished there.

"To us, there are no such things as age or gender." Aris continued from that point. "There are only warriors on a battlefield, not any girls or children. Not picking up your weapon and fight them just because they seem different is an insult to them."

"But..." Miu decided to defend Kenichi's case. "..Kenichi-san have always been a nice guy who said that one shouldn't hit on those who doesn't fight back, and he generally sees woman and children in that perspective."

"Is that so?" Eva asked the disciple and Kenichi nodded. "Boya." She snapped at her disciple and snapped her fingers. What happened in just 0.4 seconds, was that Negi had performed a shundou to end up right in front of Kenichi and then slammed him away, sending the older one flying away, almost to fall off the railings again. Kenichi managed to snatch the railings and was hanging there before anyone else had even registered what had just happened. "Like we said, it's a fatal mistake to go easy on someone just because they seem younger or of a different sex. We got someone here as well like that, and he had to reverse that the hard way."

"...Wha?" Kisara asked to herself, having only seen a flash of blue before Kenichi was blown away.

"Did Kenichi just... get blown away?" Nijima asked to make sure that he saw right. "What kind of stuff can that kid do?"

"...Thank goodness, I managed to get hold..." Kenichi moaned weakly as he was hanging there on the railings. _What just happened there? I couldn't even see Negi-kun move at all. Such speed and power he's got! Is that his magic that's boosting him? _He thought as he was being helped up by Takeda and Ukita.

"No, Kenichi-kun, that was just his own self without any boosting." Aris answered the young disciple, sending Kenichi into a minor shock over that he read his mind.

"Yappari!" Kenichi exclaimed, yelling. "You showed Koetsuji-shishou how to read minds and expressions, didn't you?!" He accused the Spartan after he got up on his own two feet. Aris could only whistle innocently at that.

"Well, he did ask courteously of me, so how could I resist?" Aris answered in the end.

"Back on topic, this still doesn't help in making sure of a spar between Shirahama and Negi-kun." Freya noted, as Negi returned to stand by Asuna's side.

"Guys, you know what, let's call it off for now." Asuna called forth. "It kinda killed the mood for a fight for me, at least. We should give it a go some other time."

"Really?" Takeda said, viewing the redhead. "That's a shame."

"Besides, this outfit is starting to itch and I feel like I would flash you boys if I moved around in this." Asuna noted down as well.

"I'll see what I can do to get you something else, Asuna." Aris said, to her delight. "Alright, if you're all good and all, we shall begin the custom made training schedule that I designed for you. And don't worry, you'll all live."

_**In the Tavern of Huttasa**_

"How on... Earth," Rev'keth asked the bookworm as they and those men who didn't have a home to go to, were having their own celebrations about their victory. "Did you convince those bandits to join our own small army?"

"That was not easy, really." Nodoka confessed. "At first they were dubious and refused initially, but after I er... _made a few hints on what would happen to them..._" She took those words slowly to have the others recall the expressions of what the bandits were. "...They did change their minds after some imagination of their own. Plus we lost several men of our own, so having them enter our small army was the better of two evils there."

"So it was either being drafted into the army, or getting hanged, chopped up or beheaded and heads put on spikes to choose between?" Hina asked of her sister. "Have you been reading too much of those books, Nodoka?"

"A little." The bookworm answered the pink-haired girl.

"At any rate, we won in the end and we get to have drinks." Raydan said and raised his tankard with ale for the others to do the same, save Hina and Nodoka, who had water instead. "Here's to our first victory together and to those we fought alongside."

"Cheers." The rest, namely the two girls, Boris, Symon, Rev'keth and their priest, dressed in half-plate armor made of actual Steel, said as the tankards clonked together, as well as many other tankards did in the tavern, for several of their own men were in the tavern, the Big horn Ram's Nest, celebrating their success. Fortunately for Symon, their Merchant Prince, he only had to buy drinks for their own personal party. Their priest didn't count officially.

"Ah, there you are." Someone behind Boris said, and they found a middle-aged man without a beard or a mustache for that fact, clad in what seemed to be rich clothing. This was Lord Sverker, the lord who requested them to stop the bandits. "I got the reports a while ago, and uh... I must say I was quite pleased with the results. How you managed, I don't really know, but I must say it's quite impressive."

"Oh, there is no need to thank us, Lord Sverker." Symon responded to the human lord. "We were in Huttasa as well at the time, so we couldn't just let them pillage as they wanted, now could we?"

"Not at all." Hina continued. "Helping people is a prerequisite back where I, Boris-san and Nodoka come from. To do so isn't really what we call, human."

"I guess you could see it that way." Sverker responded. "Uh... this is not very formal and all, so I'll just call it there. But, if you ever need a place to stay for you and your men, Huttasa's gates will always be open to you."

"Um, thank you for that, Lord Sverker." Nodoka nodded at him, and then the door to the tavern opened to reveal an armored soldier in an armor similar to what Rev'keth was wearing, save it was made of bronze plates instead of steel. He seemed to have traveled a long way, since he was exhausted.

"Excuse my intrusion," He spoke with an accent they hadn't heard before. "but I came here in search of the Lady Witch of Man. I have a message for her."

"Um, that would be me." Nodoka spoke up, rising from her seat. Almost immediately, the soldier walked over to their table slowly, as if not to frighten her, and then extended his hand to her, revealing a rolled up scroll made of animal skin.

"I've come all the way from the Great Kingdom of Zuriith." He told her. "I come with this message from the High King himself."

"The High King!?" Rev'keth exclaimed and then immediately snatched the letter from the soldier's hand. Wasting no time, he unraveled the scroll and began to read it himself, slowing down as he kept reading. "...now this I didn't expect so quickly."

"What?" Hina asked the Gith knight, trying to get a look at the letter herself, much as several others of their group was doing as well. "What is it? What does he want?"

Rev'keth didn't answer the samurai immediately, but handed the letter over to the bookworm instead as well whilst he was going to explain to her. "The High King of Zuriith has officially invited the Witch over to his own palace of Zuriith-ma, for a royal ball which is being set as the official 'Welcome party' for her." Rev'keth said as Nodoka read through the letter with the glasses she had obtained from her father Ashracai.

"Oh, dear." Sverker said, sounding concerned. "Zuriith is to the west, across the great sea. I hope you won't be gone for too long if you would want to win the war against High King Ifrith." He informed Nodoka of her original goal that she was here to accomplish in Samasal. "I suggest you take the ship that goes from Glathk, the most western city in all of Samasal. It's just three days ride from here."

"That's awfully convenient." Hina said bluntly. "A planet four times larger than Earth, and it just happens that we're three days ride's away from the most western town in the whole Great Kingdom. Especially since we're in the north, last time I checked."

"Do please try not to think about it too much, Sensei." Raydan tried to soothe her. "I gave up on that, myself. And we're not that much north, really."

"More like north-west." Symon continued on that subject. "We should make haste at dawn tomorrow morning. And we might just make it in just two days if we go without the troops."

"But should they be fine without us?" Nodoka asked, concerned of them. "I mean, they weren't even ours to begin with."

"Don't be silly." Sverker told her. "I just gave you recruits. You people made them into soldiers. And you need an army to begin with. Go on, take the soldiers. You need them more than we do here in Huttasa."

"Thank you for that, Lord Sverker." Rev'keth informed him, before turning to the other soldiers in the tavern. "Now eat up, men, because tomorrow we march to Glathk. You there, tell the rest and I don't want to see any slackers!" He ordered the closest one, who rushed out to find the other men in town.

_**The city of Glathk**_

The city of Glathk was a crossed city of mainly Githanki, the traders and smiths of the city, and the Hobgoblins, the hard working laborers of the town. Glathk itself was named after a Githyanki warlord who had saved the city once from an incursion of Humans, who wanted to take the city by force. Fortunately, the warlord Glathk had pulled a wonderful defensive tactic to hold back the humans from entering or plundering the city for more than eight days until reinforcements came from behind the human lines. Thus, they had named the city after his honor. Old Glathk himself, was still ruling the city for the last four hundred years, and he was still breathing, since he was already some seven hundred years old when he saved the city.

Nowadays, as long as they weren't in massive numbers of, say, three thousand, humans were eligible to enter the city. Glathk did respect the human race, after all, and promptly never had the problem of having to pass laws regarding them, since the humans that did live in the city, hasn't caused any trouble since the last incursion. Therefore, it was easy for a certain bookworm and her small army to enter the city walls. Just a talk with Lord Glathk (thanks to Rev'keth for that), whilst Nodoka and her group were away, their troops could stay and help reinforce law and order, as well as practice with the other soldiers and guards in town.

"Don't worry about the men, I'll take care of them, and make sure that not one of them will cause trouble." Their priest told the girls as they had handed the command to him whilst they were away in Zuriith. They had also left their armors in his possession as there wasn't expected to be any fighting there either.

"Just keep them in line for us, and you might do nicely, Father." Hina told him. "We'll be off, now." With that, they were down to just the two girls, Boris, Rev'keth, as well as Symon and Raydan. As a Knight, Rev'keth kept his own equipment on him, as did Boris. They confirmed that the Russian was something of a child when it came to military equipment. 'Course, given that he claimed to have been raised by military men might have been cause for this. Raydan and Symon went as they were, with their Monster Hunter and apparent multi-weapon user going in his leather armor with fingerless arm-guards (seriously, they were just one big piece each going up to the elbow) and their ranger with the big black cloak and hood on, as he rarely took it off. They were accompanied by the soldier who had taken the message to them to begin with. Well, he too needed to get on that ship.

"Now then, should we get aboard now? I don't think we should keep him waiting." Symon said as they approached the big ship that for some reason looked like a Spanish Galleon (I swear I was watching Chester A. Bum by the time I was writing this) except it didn't have canons. The great ship had a large figurehead in the shape of a mage wearing a cloak with a long staff held up high, with a crystal ball on the top end. As they were getting aboard, they saw several Hobgoblins work together to load all the goods and big crates into the cargo hold. At the same time, they saw one Hobgoblin that was slightly shorter than his fellows, with red hair and a red nose as well (incredibly good eyesight there) and he seemed more evil looking than the rest of them. Maybe it was because of the smoke on him? Anyways, he was wearing leather armor that had studs in it, and he had a Bronze sword at the left side of his hip, whilst he was holding a book in his hand. He also seemed quite generous, as he was paying some of the workers, and then ran away somewhere.

Shortly afterwards, some of the City Guard came by the docks as the human party (+1 Gith) had climbed aboard the ship. They were asking some of the Hobgoblin laborers about something, which the humans didn't hear about, and the laborers pointed them in another direction than the one the short Hobbo had ran off to, whilst about four of them at the same time was carrying a large crate which for some reason was heavier than the rest. And the guards went off in the direction they were being told about something, whilst the heavy crate was being put on the deck of the ship.

The captain walked up to the crate and knocked on it as he leaned down on it. "You can come out now, they're gone." And at that moment, the short Hobgoblin from before came out of the box. With seeing an inquisitive look on the Hobbo's face, he answered. "Intuition."

"Fair enough." The Hobgoblin said and then climbed out fully out of the box. "I don't care where you take me, I wouldn't want to stay in this town any longer."

In a few minutes afterward, the ship was being prepped for take-off to Zuriith. Anchors were weighed, lines were cast off and sails were set. As they were preparing to leave the great port, which was designed in a circular form with a gateway at the end, they heard some more commotion going on ashore. What was going on, was that another human dressed in a dark green coat with a singular line of large round buttons going down the center rushed up to the docks, only to find that the ship had taken off already. "Too late, son!" An old crewman shouted to him. "You'll have to wait for the next one!"

"Hold it, you!" Guards behind the new arrival shouted as they rushed after him. The new human decided to race the ship to the gateway instead. "Don't let him escape! He's worth a fortune!" Some apparent bounty hunters came in from another alley hunting the guy racing the ship.

"What's going on?" Hina spotted the first runner followed suit by the bounty hunters and the City Guard.

"Is that guy crazy or something?" Raydan asked, standing next to his Sensei. "He's running into a dead end."

"Not unless he intends to jump onto the ship." Symon said, observing as usual. "...Oh my, he intends to do it."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Well... It depends on how willing they are to attack this ship if he gets on board." Symon answered as the first runner came into towers that marked the left side of the gateway, and the others followed him suit. "Now it depends on how fast he is now."

As soon as the ship had passed the gateway, they saw the first runner in coat again, and this time he was brandishing an unusual spear. The haft was black wood and the tip was made of obsidian (very good eyesight there again). He was also having a crossbow strapped on to his back, yet there was no sign of the quiver of bolts that's obligatory for using a ranged weapon. Maybe it was underneath the coat. (DAMN YOU, BUM REVIEWS!)

"Tiamat sucks!" He cried as he jumped off the walls, hoping to land on the ship. The cry he made was in case he would miss the boat. Not much trouble for the guy, 'cuz he did miss it by a margin. Still close enough for him to stab the side of the ship with his bronze straight sword. "Whew, thought I wouldn't make it there..." He said as he was being watched by some of the passengers, including the two girls with their party of fighters. The new comer on the ship managed to climb up to the deck, only to be surrounded spears, swords and axes directed at him. "Oh, bugger."

"We don't take kindly to stowaways on this ship, mister." The Githyanki captain said, brandishing his own steel blade at him. "And it's best by not saying that Tiamat sucks with Giths nearby."

"I admit that that was in case I would fall down and drown." The intruder confessed, holding his hands up. "No offense, but you do need to do something to be remembered about once you're dead."

"If that's the case, you humans are more crazy than I thought." The captain said, as most of the security crew save two, removed their weapons from him. "Open the coat." He instructed the newly made prisoner aboard the ship, and he did so, to let the captain inspect his equipment. "Let's see... a crossbow quiver with sixty bolts, all obsidian headed... a bronze straight sword, made by human hands, not surprised there..." At the end of the inspection, he spotted an unusual ring on his finger, made of odd bone. "...This is... Oh, I know who you are." The captain finally said.

"Oh, crap."

"You're Jashol, son of Jashal. You've got quite the bounty on your head made by several magocracies in the world. Last I checked, you had managed to scramble the prize money up to over 52 000 Sols." The captain said, as Jashol's face went pale.

"...It's that much, already? My, I wonder how much mother would get out of that..." He tried to laugh nervously.

"I'm sure the magocracy in Zuriith will be pleased to have you in their laboratories so that they can-" He didn't get to finish that because of the big ballista bolt that crashed down next to them, making the whole crew realize what kind of trouble they were in. The city guard and the bounty hunters had manned the ballistas of the port towers and fired at the ship to bring it down. Then they could pick up Jashol for themselves. "All hands on deck!" The captain shouted as the barrage kept coming. "Zig-zag routine! Port to Starboard, Port to Starboard! We need to make them lose ammo quickly! Any volunteers welcome right now, we're all in trouble!"

"Boris!" Hina shouted at the Russian, making him snap into ready action. "Help the crew! We need to be maneuverable as much as possible!"

"Yes, ma'am!" He shouted back and the Russian was off to help the crew with fixing the sails and puling rope. Raydan and Symon snapped as well, taking some other passengers underneath the deck.

"Someone take this guy off the deck!" The captain screamed, referring to Jashol, who was taken away to safety by the pink-haired girl. "Incoming!" He shouted as a well placed bolt came straight at a crew member, only to be halted right in its tracks in mid air. "Huh?"

"Captain, with your leave, we can take care of the ballistas." Ser Rev'keth said as he was making the ballista bolt fly over the railings into the water. Next to him was Nodoka, given a scroll to use against the towers. "We know what we're doing."

"Good sir, I can't question your bravery," the captain retorted at him. "But what can you do against them so that we can escape persecution?"

"Don't question one's skill when they say they can do it. Besides, Samasal needs to see that the Witch is real, after all." Rev'keth said, referring of course to the little girl standing next to him. Leaving it at that, he turned to her. "Lady Nodoka, have you read what the scroll can do?"

"Witch?" The captain asked him, but was unanswered.

"Yes, I have, Rev'keth-san." Nodoka answered the Gith, and next thing she knew was that they were both flying.

"I'm using my Psychokinesis to levitate us both." Rev'keth told her as she seemed surprised. "Few TKs has managed to learn how to do this, outside the SS. I'll focus on our defense, so I need you to cast the spells we need to take out the towers. Understood?" He asked her.

"Er, yes." She managed to squeal out of herself, and they were off, back towards the towers. In response, the archers fired at them once they got into close range. Nodoka went frantic first, seeing so many projectiles directed at them, but Rev'keth staved them off easily with a large psychokinetic shield in front of them.

"Nodoka! Use the scroll!" He shouted at her, and she opened it again to read it aloud.

_Mare foc , inimă meu a face pe plac la! A vedea meu foes şi fibros pe ei jos pentru eu!_ She recited the words on the scroll whilst directing her left hand at the left (of her point of view) tower first. Searing hot energy was being sent into her hand, before it fired off as a great fireball, smashing straight into the tower side where the ballistas were being kept. The result was that the tower just exploded. Now the second tower was going to direct their fire at her instead, but her Gith Knight was very good at protection kinesis, it seemed. She faced the other tower to show her own potential. _ Practe Bigi Nar, Veniant Spiritus Aerialues Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovies Tempestas Fulguriens!_ **  
**

The tower was almost obliterated by the blast, sending several uninjured men down into the drink. Fortunately, no one was killed in that blast, as she had intended to fire it so that it could be avoidable. But the message was sent to them, and the firing stopped at them. With that, the two fliers returned back to the ship, to sound of cheering and appraisal for them.

"Amazing!" Several crew members shouted, as did many passengers who had come out because of the first blast to see the result of what she had done. "The Witch is real, after all! Long live the Witch of Man!" Several cheers for her sent the bookworm blushing furiously.

"I can scarcely believe it myself." The captain of the ship said, as another sailor had taken the helm. "I mean, I heard the rumors back in Zuriith... but to see it with your own eyes... you really _do_ know magic. And to hell with what people saying it being weak, no weak magic could have wrecked that tower so fast."

"Well, that was actually nothing compared to what magi back on her own world can do, from what I've read the reports on. That was just a minor spell for anti-army mages with focus on lightning from what I saw just there." Rev'keth tried to explain to them, many of which were highly impressed and exclaimed awe at her. "Am I right?"

"Er... yes." Nodoka answered as the crowd went quiet so that she could explain. "The Jupiter's Lightning Storm is a spell originally designed to break through barriers and slam opponents into unconsciousness. It's not a spell made to kill, unlike other spells of the same category, because the lightning element is seen as a more stunning affinity rather than others which are more into killing the enemy outright."

"So your intention there was to stun the opponents there as a first warning to stay away from our ship." Hina concluded. "Heh, I'll admit that I had my doubts before, but now, not anymore."

"I guess Ifrith have to watch out, now, eh?" Raydan spoke up, and several cheered for that. Ifrith wasn't the most popular High King, after all.

"Now, back to the original task at hand." The captain said, and some of the sailors produced Jashol again to address the captain. "Now, then. You'll be kept in the brig until we reach Zuriith. And then you'll be handed over to the magocracy there... unless the High King himself gets an interest in you."

"I will hope for that fate to happen to me." Jashol responded before being taken away to the brig.

"Now, let's sail for Zuriith once again!" The captain shouted and the rest snapped into action to ready the ship and repair damages. Unbeknownst to them, a large eye in the stone wall of the port, part of the decorations of course, blinked on its own.

_**Somewhere else at the time**_

"_Did you feel that?" _A voice in the dark asked the other voices down there with it. _"Someone used magic up there."_

"_Once again?" _Another, this one a female, questioned the first. _"There is always someone up there using magic."_

"_But didn't you sense something else? It wasn't magic we know of." _A third spoke up, and several others mumbled between each other, talking of what it could be.

"_What was it? A demon? Rufus? The Emperor Himself this time?" _A sarcastic voice said as some dark energy gathered together into one spot. At least the dark energy brought some light into the darkness where they dwell. They were the old and rotten remains of humans once, some turned into bones even, spared away in some extraplanar area.

"_No." _A more stern voice (think of the late Tony Jay here), said, silencing a few of the more active voices. _"It is time for our return, for this spellcaster is a human."_

"_A human!?" S_everal questioned the stern voice, as more energy gathered in one place. _"No human has been able to use magic save Rufus, since our demise at the Githyanki hands. How do you know that this is a human?"_

"_I have seen **her**_._" _The stern voice answered as the dark energy focused on just one spot, then exploded to form one single being, glowing alone in the darkness surrounding it. This human's features were hidden at the time.

"So... finally, after all these eons spent in this wretched place..." It spoke with a voice that sounded unnatural. "...We can finally return to the surface?"

"_Yes..."_ The scrying mage voice answered with a grin if he had a corporal form. _"Now, with someone up there, who isn't Rufus... We can finally take our revenge on the Githyanki for our destruction. And all will know that we did away with them, forever!" _With that, several voices began their hideous laughter as they began to merge themselves into the corporal form, for it was their ticket up to the surface once again.

"_In the Dark of the Night, we were tossing and turning..." _One voice started off, referring to their time spent here in this place. _"And the Nightmare we had was as bad as can be..."_

_It scared us out of our wits," _Another continued from there, as the body they were merging with, collapsed into several body parts in one big pile. "_A corpse falling to bits,"_

"Then we opened our eyes"_, _The corporal head began now as the body began to put itself together."and the nightmare was... me!"

"_We were once the most powerful men on the Planet," _A new voice came to as the newly reassembled corpse that began to approach a flat wall to reveal the surface and a great war was being taken place on it._ "When the Yanki destroyed us, they made a mistake."_

"_Beneath them, we have all thrived, Now one little girl has arrived!!" _The scryer's voice came back as the wall revealed a celebrating Nodoka with the rest of her companions, having some good food brought to them as thanks for saving the ship, in the captain's office. "_Little Witch, beware, because we're awake!" _He finished as his magic spirit was merged into the corporal form, as more and more spirits, most likely inhabitants of this plane they were in, came closer to join in on the magi's small festivities.

"_In the Dark of the Night, evil will find her... In the Dark of the Night, just before dawn..." _As they kept it up amongst themselves, more and more energy which included fire, dreams, light, frost, lightning and earth gathered into the corporal form and its power kept growing as more and more came into the ever merging form.

"_Revenge will be sweet," _A female voice called out as her spiritual form was being sent into their new body that they had created together._ "When the curse is complete!"_

"_In the Dark of the Night,"_ a chorus cried out as the gathered energy was fully assembled from those who had already gone into the physical form as he decided to add something to this odd song that they had begun singing. "They'll be gone!!_" _

"I can feel that our powers are slowly returning..."He said as his sense of feel came to him, and he began to glow once again."Bring me my cloak that was made from the weaves of Hell!"He instructed the spirits of this place, which fetched for him a ragged old mantle, torn and ragged, yet held a certain touch to it, mainly because it was filled with blinking eyeballs.

"_As the pieces fall into place, We'll see them crawl into place!" _Yet another mage continued as he was merged into their new body that had put on their new cloak. For some bizarre reason, he had a Russian accent of his own. "_Dasvidanya, Honya, your grace, farewell!" _With that, their form began descending self forming stairs down into a fiery area, containing all their items that had been stored away. (How come that their magic items is stored away in the same place as they- Who cares?! It's part of the plot!)

"_In the Dark of the Night, terror will strike her!"_ The chorus came again as more and more spirits of destroyed magi filled into him and took part in more and more revel of their return to the surface, whilst the corporal mage took a bundle of scrolls written down centuries ago.

"Terror's the least I can do!" He exclaimed as he stored several wands into his cloak and proceeded to grab a few extra books.

"_In the Dark of the Night, Evil will brew..." _The chorus somewhere kept growing, whilst dark energy began to gather in the roof above him and the other spirits.

"_Soon, she will feel," _Another mage spirit, this one focusing on dreams and the mental mind, and the corporal form sang as they merged together into each other. "That her nightmares are real."The latter finished for the two of them.

"_In the Dark of the Night," _More and more dark energy began to gather up in the roof as the chorus that didn't merge themselves into the magi body sang on and on. "_She'll be through!" _

"_In the Dark of the Night, evil will find her," _Finally, the roof of the plane opened up itself as the mage began looking through several staffs to pick one of them._ "In the Dark of the Night, terror comes true!"_

"My dear, you're a sign," He started as a new picture of Nodoka came up, being told a few things by Rev'keth regarding something magical they presumed, whilst he himself picked a black wooden staff decorated with beads and small nuggets of gold tied to it with strings. "It's the end of their kind!"

"_In the Dark of the Night..." _The roof started to ventilate as the corporal mage had finished merging in several magi spirits into himself and then thrust his staff into the floor that cracked underneath the impact.

"Come our minions, rise for your Master," At that, scores of vicious demons, several large and strong looking that could rip off a grown man's arm off with ease, others small and imp-like in body structure, yet dangerous on their own when left to handling helpless victims. Finally, massive dragon-like beings that didn't have the same scale like appearance of actual flying dragons, and their eye sockets were empty and blank white instead. "Let your Evil shine!"

"_In the Dark of the Night, in the Dark of the Night!" _The chorus kept going as the demons and their humanoid like companions kept going upwards into the sucking roof that would spew them out into the surface once again.

"Find her now, yes, fly ever faster!" He instructed them as they kept going upwards and out into the open, to fall prey upon a city somewhere in the mountain ridges not far from Glathk.

"_In the Dark of the Night, In the Dark of the Night, In the Dark of the Night!" _Now the chorus focused their power on their corporal form, so that he could get up there with them as well. He couldn't help but promise them something as he was being sent up there, as his body was temporarily being turned to dust for easy departure.

"**She'll be mine!"**

* * *

"Achoo!" Nodoka sneezed in her own cabin, granted by the captain for her and Hina. Shame it only had one bed.

"Someone's gossiping?" Her sister asked as she lay on her side of the bed.

"Could be." The bookworm answered her as she decided to lie down. "But it could have just been a common cold."

_**In another ocean**_

"And I thought the weights were just a metaphor..." Asuna said as she, Ako, Takane, Takeda, Yuuna, Haruna and Kaede were out in the ocean, the first time for Takeda at least. This time the water was calm, tranquil, no storms were raging. But they had been forced into broe the water was calm, tranquil, no storms were raging. But they had been forced into bronze scale armor, each weighing some 12 kg each. It was no biggie for Asuna and Kaede, but for the rest, it was difficult. "Why are we wearing these to begin with?"

"It was either these or the big rocks." Haruna, struggling to keep up on the surface with the armor on. "I thought he was joking when he said he was going to add weights to our swim training, but he did it anyway..."

"I'll admit that it's tough to even stay at the surface with this on..." Takeda said, actually ignoring the girl's looks for once. What was surprising to them at least regarding him was that he had springs linked together to compact his body frame underneath the armor he was wearing. "We can barely stay afloat like this."

"Wouldn't it be better if we all took off the armor?" Yuuna asked out loud.

"No, we must do this with it on." Takane scolded her. "We would fail this if we skipped it."

"Mou... it's too heavy..." Ako complained, struggling herself to keep afloat.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... do you hear that?" Haruna asked them as they heard music being played somewhere. It was a familiar tone, being loud and clear yet there was no one to play the music. "What's that tune?"

"Where does it come from?" Yuuna asked, trying to cover her ears, yet the music still came to her.

"It's telepathic, it plays inside our heads." Asuna said. "My Magic Cancel doesn't work on it, so I can hear it too."

"Magic Cancel?" Takeda asked as the music kept playing in their heads.

"Short version, I am able to nullify any kind of magic that is supposed to bring harm to me within a certain area. Telepathy is not harmful so it can bypass that."

"Ah." Takeda said as he gathered that.

"I know this tone." Takane said, and the rest looked at the Okiamancer. "It's the theme from Jaws."

Everyone went very quiet at that as Mr. Bunny passed by their head, carrying his trademark branch with him.

"You mean that movie franchise with the-?" Yuuna asked the sniper.

"Yes, the shark." Takane responded.

"The really big one?"

"Yes."

"We're doomed." Haruna lamented on their situation.

"Come on." Asuna tried to rally their support. "It's just the music playing in our heads. It's not like there is an actual-" She was cut off by Yuuna and Ako seeing something in the distance.

A shark fin.

A great big shark fin could seen about 30 meters away from them, swimming from left to right of their point of view. It stayed afloat as the music in their heads reached something of a climax, then dove back down into the water.

"Shark." Haruna said.

"I'd say a Great White." Yuuna added.

"A big one... about a ton, maybe more." Takeda said as well, unnerved by the shark's presence.

"I could handle it." Asuna said calmly. "We've done in things bigger than that shark back in the Magic World. A shark shouldn't be much trouble." With that, she called out her metal fan and dove into the deep waters, leaving the others up there, waiting for a sign to come up. They could swim like hell if it was the shark, but they knew what Asuna could do at least. But a few moments later, the redhead came back up and she had that look on her face that could be read like: _Oh Crap_. "It's Rachel."

"Rachel?" Ako echoed the name.

"Rachel..." Asuna answered her, before a big sign came up with handwriting on it popped up in front of them. It read 'You got 100 meters headstart'. That was enough for Asuna. "SWIIIIIM!" She screamed as she bolted through the water for it, armor or not. The redhead was followed suit by the others.

_Somewhere else at the time._

"You know, I have to admit, Aristodemus-sensei." Kenichi told the Spartan as they were in the boat along with Akira the Swimmer, the two teens in their swimwear, whilst the Ancient in a sleeveless cloak for magi, with loose fitting pants underneath at least. "I thought you were going to put me through some hardcore training that would almost kill me after the Elder left."

"Nah." Aris answered him. "Ryouzanpaku has already given you the martial art training you need to put your stamp on the world. I just decided to give you a little boost somewhere else. Pretty much why Akira-kun here is also on the boat and not out there looking for us." He said whilst stepping on to the water. "I'm going to teach you how to use Ki instead."

"Ki?" Kenichi echoed the word. Akira stayed quiet on this one.

"Every martial art master and their disciple has heard of the term." The Spartan continued. "Chi, or Ki as Japanese pronounce it, is the very energy we fighters use to fight. The Magic World has heard of it as well. Chi is a form of physical energy that resides in people that has normally no affiliation with the spiritual energy that is called magic. And despite its abundance, very few people has managed to master it to their own will. Chi is there to help a fighter in battle, but there aren't many times when it emerges. This is why martial artists spend much time meditating, to find their own personal source of Chi, and unlock it."

"Hm..." Akira took in this knowledge. "So, when we focus as much energy as we can into something, that Chi of ours is being used to help give a boost as well?"

"Somewhat to that effect, yes." Aris answered her. "The problem however, is to discover where Chi is stored. No one can claim that their Chi is stored in the same place as another. Some groups has found that their Chi can be found within their comrades, and when they work together, that Chi is released. Just one example, really. But not everybody can unlock theirs, no matter how hard they try. Some might find it impossible to accomplish."

"Thanks for the warning, at there, sensei." Kenichi said, almost disappointed at that fact. "But if I manage to unlock my Chi, what can I do with it?"

"That's a good question. Hayato told me that you are a Sei fighter, meaning you're able to do the Seikyuuken technique." Aris said, starting to float above them. "Allow me to show it to you in the easy way first. You know that there are roughly two categories, Dou and Sei. Dou is the most common one when using Chi itself. Just like Dou fighters, Dou Chi is directed outward, mostly in the form of energy balls or rays." To prove it, he gathered his own energy into his left palm, and as visual aid, a great Swastika with an even greater face behind it emerged, focused on the Spartan's hand. "This I learned from Buddhist monks in the Forbidden Kingdom, with focus on exterminating demons. **The Six Cycles of Samsara!" **He shouted as six giants beams of raw energy slammed down around the boat that the two teens were on, making the ship rock from side to side, and to prevent from falling over, the two teens held on to each other. It was only one wave of energy that had slammed down, so the energy stopped rather quickly. Aris landed to find the two unharmed and some distance between them as well. "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine." Kenichi answered him immediately.

"No damage came to us." Akira said, somewhat blushing to herself there.

Aris sighed at the sight of the two. "If there were any confusion between you two, well it happens." At that, the two teens jumped. "Now let's move on. The Sei style of Chi is much the opposite of Dou, as is usual of the two. Instead of using destructive forces of battle, Sei Chi is more focused on the body, with special attention to protection and healing. It is possible to heal yourself using Chi, but that one is very hard to learn from the start. Sei also helps you increase your own toughness and strength, making it look like you're a superhuman. Using this, you could split a tank using only one finger."

"Split a tank with a finger?" Akira echoed that one. "Isn't that a little too much, Sensei?"

"Not really, it can be done if you practice it." Aris answered her. "The thing is, most people want stuff to go boom, so they tend to ignore the Sei part of Chi. What some people don't know is that it's the more practical to know between the two. And another, the Chi itself is not determined to just the kind of fighter you are. A Sei fighter can learn how to use his Chi in Dou and vice versa. In fact, it wouldn't really hurt to learn both of them at the same time. That's essentially what I'm going to teach you, Kenichi-kun."

"Really? That's it? No techniques or anything like that?" Kenichi asked the Spartan.

"...Well if you insist, I could show you some moves from Ancient Pankration, and the _pneufma _version of Chi. But that's only if you want to. I'm not sure if you need any further technique training from me at all."

"OVER THERE!" Asuna's voice was heard some distance from them, and nearly the whole swimming group was racing towards them. "Come on! We've found the boat at last!" The Redhead was in the lead, followed by the Sniper and the Ninja, followed by their Boxer fellow. The weird thing was that they all looked very much frightened instead of pumped up. After a quick haul-up, Asuna didn't seem happy at the Spartan. "You... of all the.... Why did you start the theme from _Jaws_ out there!? To scare the life out of us!?" She grabbed Aris' neck pin and shook him viciously.

"...Well, I did say last time that I would toss you out there with music playing in your ears, but I kind of was expecting you to catch on what the theme would be before I sent you out there." He said calmly first before Asuna got mad again.

"How were we supposed to know it was the theme from Jaws you put in!?" Asuna yelled at him, shaking him once again, his face a blur this time. "And what was it with sending Rachel out there as well, huh? Did you intend to scar us with her?"

"Rachel was only out there to motivate to get going and find the boat as fast as you could. There's a reason why teamwork is called teamwork."

"Motivate!?" Asuna slammed him against the boat railing and started punching him thoroughly. "Oh, she did motivate us. She motivated us by threatening to take away our pride as maidens!" She ranted on as Aristodemus was being beaten severely by her. "I've never been so scared in my whole life before. I saw her down there in the waters."

"Well, what did she do to make you so scare-"

"SHE WAS WEARING A FRICKIN' STRAP-ON!" She cried as she continued to bash him into the boat, but she got pulled back by Yuuna and Kaede once the others spotted blood being sent into the air.

"Stop it, Asuna! He's had enough!" The basketball player yelled at her redhead friend. "You don't need to beat him bloody."

"Hey, where's Ako?" Akira asked, getting their attention, save the bloodied old man. "Weren't she with you as well?"

"Huh?" Haruna asked, looking around the boat to look for their nurse. "You're right. Where is she?"

"Over there." Takeda said, pointing for them to see Ako swimming towards them, being exhausted on her own.

"...Couldn't at least... one of you... have stayed with me?" Ako called out to them, as she was struggling to catch up to them. She wasn't sure if they heard her, since the splashing of water was being slammed against her face as she kept on swimming to them.

"Come on, Ako!" Yuuna called to her, whooping in the air for her friend. "You're nearly there!"

"Come on, Ako-chan!" Asuna cheered for her. "You've lost Rachel! She's nowhere to be seen!"

"You can do it!"

"Just keep going! You're almost here!"

"Boat is just rig-" Asuna started, but stopped as she saw something in the distance behind the swimming nurse. As the others viewed her, they saw her face going all pale and she shuddered, seeing what it was behind her. "Ako-chan! Push yourself!" She screamed at the blue haired girl.

"Eh?" Ako actually stopped to listen.

"Don't stop, just keep going!" Asuna yelled at the nurse. "You're nearly here! Just keep swimming!" At that, and the tone of her voice, made Ako swim as much as she could, despite the armor wearing her down. "Don't look back! Just keep at it!"

"Asuna, why are you being so worked up?" Yuuna asked the redhead and Asuna didn't respond at first, but she did point to some distance behind the nurse and their faces went pale at the sight of what was behind Ako.

It was the same shark fin they saw earlier.

"SWIM FOR IT, AKO!" Yuuna started off first and soon everyone was shouting for the nurse to swim as fast as she could.

"Old man!" Asuna turned to the Spartan. "Do you think you could-" She had forgotten that she had beaten him bloody and he was still unconscious from the blows. "Crap, my fault."

"Kenichi-kun!" Takeda decided to take off his armor and remove the springs from his torso to be completely able to move freely. "Let's go!" The two young men dove back into the water and swam for it to fetch Ako out of the drink. They managed to get to the nurse before the shark fin did, and then they swam like hell back to the boat, holding Ako between their arms, and kicked their legs viciously through the water to reach the boat before Rachel caught with them. Only to the viewers', well, view, the shark fin disappeared beneath the water.

"That's not good." Yuuna said and then yelled at the two men. "Keep going, guys!"

"Hu-eh?" Aris finally woke up and looked around to see what was going on. "What I miss, what I miss?"

"Hey, where'd it go?" Kenichi asked Takeda and Ako, as he was swimming holding the nurse on her right, with Takeda on her left. "Where did the shark go?"

"That's no shark, it's Rachel-san." Ako said exhausted, being carried by the two men holding her in between them. "The last person you would want to face, ever if you were a young person."

"Then we're in very deep wa-" Takeda didn't get to finish that because of a high velocity impact attack from beneath them, sending all three of them high into the air at first, followed by a fourth figure as well. It was Rachel, wearing a one-piece green swimsuit and by God, she was indeed wearing a strap-on. It could best be described as a two-pound, black ripped nobbler. The pervert managed to grab hold of Ako's leg, before being slammed away by a charging Asuna, empowered with Kankahou, making the three teens in the air fall down again into the drink, the girl between taking it the hardest since she was the exhausted and weakest of them.

"Why you!" Asuna kept at it, bashing against a grinning Rachel, whilst Ako began sinking into the drink. Of course, that didn't go unnoticed by the redhead. "Ako-chan!" With a quick bash to the pervert's throat, she dived into the water to get the nurse out of there. She was quickly aided by Kenichi, who dove right after her and then they swam up to the boat to get the nurse in their, followed by the man between them. "Is she gonna be okay?" Asuna asked them as the nurse was coughing loudly in the boat, attended to by Yuuna and Kaede.

"She'll be fine." Kaede said, her eyes open this time. "Quick thinking there, Asuna-dono."

"Nah, it was nothing really."

"Can I get some help over here!?" Takeda screamed as he was battling the returning Rachel, with his bare hands in the water, whilst Rachel just came at him. "She's quite persistent!"

"Coming!" Asuna cried back at him and swam back out again to help the boxer. "Come on, Rachel! Time for round 3!" She called out to the berserker, who heeded the call.

"Tsk." Rachel said before jumping out of the water completely to stand straight up on the surface. "Last I counted, it's time for round 4, then." With that, she sent some shockwave into the drink, to send the redhead and the boxer high into the air yet again. "Here I come, ready or not!" She cried as she ran on the water with ease, going straight for Asuna first. The boxer managed to grab hold of her leg, making her fall down, but he didn't stand on the water, so he got kicked away by Rachel. Asuna wasn't wearing that heavy bronze armor, so she could come straight at her on the water as much as Rachel could. She came at the berserker with her Muay Thai training earned from Aris when she was younger, and Rachel just accepted the blows whilst dishing out her own attacks. "Now that's better, Asuna-chan. Choosing Muay Thai was probably the best choice for you, since it was designed for warriors to fight on in battle even when they've lost their weapons."

"Oh, I got better stuff than that!" The redhead called back at Rachel, going for a low kick on her. But Rachel dove down into the water backwards, going out of sight from Asuna. "Where did she-?" Asuna got pulled down into the drink and then groped by Rachel from behind, before she delivered a knee attack, sending her high into the air, along with a huge splash of water, making it seem like a bomb going off beneath the water. "Ah!" Asuna cried in pain from that.

"Asuna!" Yuuna cried as she prepared to dive in whilst Takeda climbed aboard, but she got stopped by the old man sitting next to her.

"No." Aris told her. "This is Asuna's fight. Let her deal with this."

"Oh, screw that logic! A friend is in danger here!" The basketball player yelled at him.

"True, but can you keep up with that level?" The Spartan argued, and then they saw a bright light where the two fighters were.

"You...you..." Asuna said as her energy of Kankahou was being charged all around her. She didn't look very happy at all at seeing Rachel going out like this, and Rachel didn't seem to hide the fact that she was in trouble this time.

"Fuck." Was all she could say before it happened.

"PERVERTED, SHAPE-SHIFTING KAORU-CHAN EXPY!" Was what could be heard of Asuna's voice as a pillar of searing white hot energy slammed down upon the berserker, causing huge waves to occur, sending the boat away from where they were originally. Eventually the rage ended, and Asuna began falling down into the water, exhausted. Only she didn't hit it.

"Good one, Asuna." Aris' voice could be heard as the two were flying through the air, at least that was what Asuna felt like whilst she was being held by him back to the boat. "Very good one."

"Heh, thanks." She responded to him out of energy as they decided to return to the castle where the rest of them trained.

Somewhere down in the drink of that great big ocean of the resort, Rachel managed to resurface, all bruised and out of energy, save what she had to float up on the surface. That blast really did a number on her, since she couldn't move. But there was just one thing that bugged her. "Who's Kaoru-chan?"

_**Back on Tu'narath**_

The journey was fast, somehow with a magic generator now in place and repaired, despite the attacks. But it would still be about only tomorrow when they would arrive in Zuriith. For the past four days they had been out to sea and both day and night were long and dull. Probably hence why some crew members would spend some time sparring with each other. Best way to use energy when not helping maintaining the ship, one would suppose.

For our small band of travelers, that worked just fine. Just because Hina had asked nicely of him, their pet Russian had become champion of the unarmed fighting tournament, using his Command Sambo to near fullest. Near fullest, as in, not killing anyone. Now their pink-haired girl regretted asking him going out there as he was unchallenged.

"Anyone else want to try and take him on?" Symon spoke up for them.

"Be my guest." Rev'keth, who had stood on the side-lines, commented. "I've no urge to try out those muscles."

"Yeah, come on, Symon." Hina said as she was going slow blade exchange with their bookworm, both watching the bigger tournament from aside. "We know Raydan's already and Rev'keth doesn't have much taste for facing Boris. That leaves you."

Several people who were watching, urged Symon to step into the ring and face the big Russian. The ranger had to admit that he had walked into this one. So he did remove his cloak for once, revealing that he did have short black messy hair and the left eye was indeed white with a scar running over it and stepped. And the people cheered. "Well, here goes nothing."

"Bring it." Boris spoke up as he went first with a round-house kick against his opponent. As the two fought each other, the two girls went more easy on one another. Hina went first on the offensive on Nodoka slowly to help her improve the defense with her sword. Their little game of swordplay went on slowly at first, for the bookworm to get the feeling of the handle properly in her hand, before it turned up a notch. This time, Nodoka went on the offensive as Symon against Boris began his assault unarmed. Hina managed to block her every move, as the purple haired girl was rather clumsy with the blade.

But Nodoka could thrust properly with her sword, Hina didn't have the same ability with Masamune. Even more so, the pink-haired girl didn't want to try out those new upgrades that General Cireka and her staff supposedly put into the wooden blade. But she couldn't help but admire the bookworm's own courage. The little girl had certainly experienced more stuff involving magic then herself, even though Hina gained donkey ears once. (she really did) What's more, the purple haired girl had seen death, or so she claimed, up close. She never asked what kind of death it was, but that would be a little too personal to ask of her.

It was at that moment, as Symon and Boris had come to an actual draw between each other and she herself blocking a blow from her sister, that Hina noticed one familiar face leaning against the railings of the ship. That short Hobgoblin who stowed away in that box when they took off earlier. He certainly seemed free of his own problems, whatever they were back in Glathk. Speaking of problems, she realized that Lord Glathk would scold them for damaging his city towers once they got back there. "Um, Rev'keth, how about you take over training Nodoka with her sword handling?" She requested of their Gith Knight to take her place so she could investigate something.

"Suppose I could do that." Rev'keth answered her and drew his sword. "But I guess we could use a little more space." He commented as well, seeing how great their steel blades were in comparison to the crew's own bronze. Boris and Symon on the other hand, stepped aside and let the two sword users get the main area for their little training match. Hina decided to leave them alone as their blades clashed together at normal speeds, and walked over to the short Hobgoblin to ask him something. She had seen Hobbos before, but she always found them rather intriguing when she first saw them back at Huttasa's Warrior Guild. This one didn't look like much of a fighter in comparison to his fellows, so it was worth asking at least. "So how you're here?" She went bluntly and took him by surprise. "Back in Glathk. You snuck aboard in a crate and bribed the dock loaders to point the guards in another direction. What happened for you back there?"

"That's a little too much to ask to a stranger, don't you think?" The Hobgoblin responded to her and she realized that she had spoken too much there. "But it's alright this time. One can't wonder off far on a boat to begin with. Well, I've gotten a few complaints regarding the smell of where I used to live, back there. The guard came and occasionally had me pay a fine for the stench, and it was constricted so that I couldn't go shop for food or gear. They arranged so that someone would deliver them to me as long as I paid. But the night before we left for Zuriith, er, my neighbor's basement... collapsed."

"Collapsed?" the pink-haired girl echoed the last word of the hobbo's sentence. "How come?"

"I do alchemy, missy." The Hobbo answered her. "Unlike most Hobgoblins who prefer their fists, spears and swords, I prefer to use grenades, acids and the occasional large explosive to fight instead."

"But, you do have a sword right there." Hina referred to his own Bronze blade on his left hip. "Is that for emergency cases?"

"Partially. Besides, what good is a weapon if you do not use it?" He pointed out as well. "But it's also demanded of Hobbos to have at least one weapon ready. Didn't you see the dockloaders having axes and daggers on them all the time as they were loading the ship with goods?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I do recall that they had weapons on them..." Hina noted to herself as she recalled the Hobbo dock workers having axes and daggers at their side.

"It's an unwritten Hobgoblin law, unless you want to be killed for not bearing one. The least my tribe did to me for my own, unorthodox tactics and weapons was to kick me out and sent me off to the nearest settlement."

"Sounds awful."

"At first, yes. But I got an opportunity to study my alchemy further." The Hobbo continued his small tale of how he ended up on the ship. "I studied at an outlying library, and discovered several ways of using my gift, if you could call it that. Then a cadre of Githyanki raiders decided to attack, for all the books and treasury underneath, I suppose. Heh, lucky for my part that I had just learned and made explosives."

"But I'm gonna assume there's a twist to that story." Hina concluded, figuring out that the Giths were wiped out, whilst her sister kept sparring against Rev'keth.

"Yes. I may have killed most of those Giths, but my friends at that library died as well. So I decided to leave and look for some other place. It took me a few years to travel and study until I came to Glathk. I stayed there and said I'd work on something that would greatly benefit the ship's armaments, so I was given a place to live in and work at. Though I clearly forgot to pay for the reinforcement of the basements of my neighbors. And there you have it, why I'm aboard this ship to Zuriith."

"Hm." Hina commented on the story. "I suppose that was a hard time for you."

"Don't give me all that sympathy that humans have. Most are impatient and demand results immediately, when they should learn that making good stuff takes time." The hobbo said. "But I do appreciate it. Everyone needs to express themselves from time to time."

"Well then, I think we might get along just fine." Hina said and nodded at him. "I'm Hinagiku Katsura, traveling Samurai and companion to the... Witch of Man over there with the Gith." She gestured with her hand towards the two sparring partners, that were getting somewhere rather neatly.

"I was expecting her to be... more developed, if I might speak my mind." The Hobbo said first and then introduced himself. "I am Bax Hejami'kon of the Paragon tribe, Exile. Hejami was my father. Hence the term."

"Oh." Hina said. "Pleasure to meet you mister Bax." She skipped the Japanese addressment, since that would only be confusing to the Hobgoblin. "If you'd like, you could come with us. We might be in need of someone with your skills."

"Me, a Hobgoblin, traveling with humans, in a war against Ifrith the Light Speed God, High King of Samasal, who is in command of millions of soldiers? Heh, I like a proper challenge like that. Consider me part of your group, Lady Hinagiku. My grenades and bombs are at the disposal of the Witch, until we've won, or we've died." To seal their alliance, the two of them shook hands before Raydan called his Sensei over and he followed her suit.

* * *

The next day, they had reached the shore town of Wee Jas. It was a human city for once, mostly and no one seemed to be bothered with that there were Githyanki, Hobgoblins and Rakshasae in the town as they went ashore on the neatly built docks. The city itself, was beautiful, made out of white marble, strong wood to help reinforce the stonework and the domework was just gorgeously done. The beauty was also noted in how everybody who worked at the docks, cooperated in peace with each other. Humans and Hobbos worked together to help move everything and told each other what to do so that things worked smoothly. Giths also helped with moving and organizing everything, some using their psychokinesis to help move things to high levels without a ladder, and some teleporters were fast to aid one another rapidly.

"It's certainly a different pace here than back at Samasal." Raydan noted for them as they stood there, watching everyone work. "Everyone seems to be at peace with each other."

"It's just like last time I was here." Symon commented as well as he waved back to someone who saw him and waved at him first.

"You've been here before, Symon-san?" Nodoka asked of their ranger.

"Oh yes. My father brought me here from Samasal when I was... 14, I guess. I've only finished my militia training back then, and Father wanted some kind of protection when he came here to help establish a sea faring business with Zuriith's realms." Symon answered, and at that time, the ship's crew brought along Jashol, from before, in chains.

"Here, could you do us a favor and hold him here until the magocracy here in Zuriith comes to pick him up." The ship's first mate said as they handed the chains into Boris' hands. "He's enough trouble as it is." With that, they just left him in their care.

"Okay, what to do with this guy?" Raydan said as they were in an awkward silence of staring between one another about what to do or say.

"Oh, I don't know." Jashol started almost sarcastically. "You can practically do whatever you want with me. You could even just untie me and let me go."

"So you can on the loose again after all the trouble you've caused for the magi here?" Rev'keth countered the human. "I don't think so."

"Or, you could be very clever and see if you could get me to spill my secrets." Jashol retorted. "My head is filled with stuff the Magi would kill to know about."

"How about you shut it," Hina said annoyed. "and we won't strip you of your clothing, tie you upside down and raise you up the nearest flagpole for people to throw rotten food at you?"

"Fair enough." Jashol said and promptly kept quiet afterward.

"How about we claim the bounty on him?" Boris suggested. "52 000 sols sounds like a whole lot to me, at least."

"Sols are the gold currency here." Rev'keth informed the Russian. "If we were to claim the bounty on this fellow, we might just have the money to build an army, perhaps enough to take the fight directly to Ifrith, so we can find the scepter without distractions."

"Oh, now that sounds good to me." Symon said. "Looking at the bigger picture here, it would go to huge benefit for our part."

"Shall we put it to a vote?" Raydan asked them.

"Don't tell me you people are actually taking this seriously." Jashol lamented on his situation. It didn't take long before large floating 'bouyance tanks' came up to the docks. There were a total of four, each looking the same. They were built most rectangular, with the idea of a crescent moon in form, the curve inward was the bottom of the tanks. On their sides, magic glyphs were marked on the front and the rear, much the wheels on a car, except these didn't touch the ground. The top of the great floating tanks had slightly transparent blue glass, revealing it as a transport vehicle of sorts. It was also noted by a door on the side of each vehicle. Finally at the rear, there was a small platform holding armored soldiers, these were humans by the way, and they managed to stay on thanks to a handle on the rear of the tank. The main color was black, save for the glass which was light blue and the runes were bright yellow. Followed behind the hover crafts was a large contingent of Knights, clad in heavy half plate armor and armed with swords and lances.

"Anything we should know about this High King, Rev'keth-san?" Nodoka asked the Gith Knight.

"Except that he's one of the greatest Magi this world has ever seen for eons?" He retorted, seeing all the tanks as well. "Well, I hear he's quite the scholar."

"This must be what he sent us." Hina said and started walking to the tanks. "Come on." Everybody went after her as she walked up to the first tank in line with the paper they received back in Huttasa to one of the guardsmen. "We got an invitation by the High King. Is this what he sent?"

The guard she addressed took the paper when presented it, and opened it to have a look as the tank behind him opened up. "You've come to the right area. We just need to ask a few questions and everything should be fine."

"A few questions?" Nodoka asked as the rest of them approached.

"Oh, just a few check-ups. Your names, ages, all that crap and after that, we'll do some magic scan on you to see that it's not some illusion you're wearing."

"I don't recall you doing any of that on me." A new female voice behind the guard spoke up as she emerged from the tank. A look at the direction revealed possibly one of the most beautiful people they've ever seen. For Nodoka's part, it was like seeing Queen Arika in the flesh, or something similar. This lady was blonde as well, golden haired even. Piercing purple eyes did she have, along with a body that most women would kill to possess of their own, and what most men would kill to be even allowed to touch once. She had her hair tied into an intriguing ponytail just like Hina's, a status symbol among the Gith as a warrior. Which was also surprising.

This lady was also Githyanki. Only, she didn't seem to have the same skin complexion that most of them had. Be it genetic mutation or something like that. She had bright skin like those from underground, with just a few spots here and there on her, not like other Giths that were covered in the spots every few centimeters. If it weren't for the head shape, she would most likely be mistaken for a gorgeous human instead. She wore a plain green dress with actual gold embroideries at the sleeves and the bottom, which didn't cover her legs completely, finishing with small brown shoes with laces. She also wore a light brown jacket on top of it, marked with silver embroideries this time, in a constantly swirling pattern.

At seeing her, several Giths, including Rev'keth, went stammering of what they were about to say.

"I don't think that the questioning should be necessary for these people, good Officer." She told the guard standing in front of Hina, and he excused himself from the ladies, walking over to some other soldiers. The Gith lady then turned to the pink-haired girl. "Are you Katsura Hinagiku?"

"Eh?" Hina responded at first, but seeing the kind smile of the lady, she managed to nod at her. "Er, yes I am."

"Then that little girl behind you must be Miyazaki Nodoka, otherwise known as the Witch of Man." The Gith lady took them all by surprise there. "I was told about a human girl able to use magic to some extent, but I guess my expectations were... a bit too high, as the rest of us who's heard of you." She addressed the bookworm.

Nodoka didn't say anything at first, but she did dust off some dirt from her treasure hunting clothing and then bowed neatly to her in the traditional Japanese style. "Yuroshika onegaishimasu." She greeted the Gith lady, and the rest of their party bowed likewise, save Boris, who merely nodded at the Gith lady.

"My, how courteous. She does at least have manners." The golden haired noblewoman said and raised Nodoka's chin so that their eyes met properly. The Gith lady couldn't help but grin at seeing the little bookworm's face. _So damn cute..._ "Well then, shall we get going? The girls can come in my hover craft, the rest of you can go in whatever vehicle you see fit."

"Um, excuse me, lady." Symon said, catching her attention. "But what about this man?" He referred of course to Jashol, the man in chains. "He's wanted by the magocracies."

"Oh, thank you very much, there, 'Living Death'." Jashol snarled at him, revealing his own nickname. "You should be glad that they haven't had a look at you just yet."

"Hey now, there's no need to be rude." The Gith lady said, walking up to them. "I'm sure that it's nothing important you're wanted for."

"Oh, nine years of hunting is nothing, lady?" The chained up man scorned at her. "They've been chasing me since I was 14, and I don't think they would have kept it up for more than a year and a half just because I was insignificant."

"Hey!" Some guards came up to him and decided to thrash Jashol for speaking like that. "Show some damn respect, criminal scum! This is a High Queen you're speaking to!"

"Hueh!?" The three Earthlings couldn't help but be stunned by that fact. "A High Queen?!"

"Er, maybe I should do the introductions, here." Rev'keth said, walking up to face the rest of their band that was speechless. "May I, ma'am?" He asked the Gith lady.

"Go ahead."

"This, little children, is none other than the High Queen of Druustya, Efromm the Golden Haired." Rev'keth spoke as she decided to take a look at the whole gang. "Druustya is to the east of Samasal, across the vast mountain ridges. And from the surface reports, She and Ifrith hasn't had the best of relations between one another."

"Not to sound rude or anything..." Hina said, taking a good look at what Efromm looked like, _without_ clothes on. "...but it feels sometimes like people admire you because of your body, Efromm-sama?" She asked the blonde Gith lady.

"Sometimes, but I don't mind that. Even one's looks can be used for serving an ultimate purpose." Efromm answered her.

"Besides..." Rev'keth leaned in towards Hina. "She's a 92-54-83."

"What!?" Hina exclaimed.

"You don't get to see such a rare number." Rev'keth tried to excuse himself. "Efromm-sama as you call is what is known on Earth as a major sex symbol. And furthermore-" He didn't get to finish that, since Efromm had put her finger on his chin and the next thing everybody knew, was that Rev'keth had been sent flying high into the air and reached about the edge of eyesight in just a brief second.

"I **do **however, mind that others keep track of my current measurements." Efromm stated, simple as that. "At any rate, back to you." She turned to a beaten Jashol. "Let's take you to Zuriith-ma as well and have your sentence done once the festivities are over." To that, the guards standing over the outlaw, picked him up roughly and carried him off into the hover craft at the rear. "Come. Best not keep the court of Zuriith-ma waiting." She said as the blonde Queen led Nodoka and Hina into their craft, whilst Boris jumped on its rear platform.

"I suppose we can trust her." Bax said beneath a cough and went to the craft behind the girls', followed by the other two in their band. As the hover crafts left, Rev'keth came crashing down on the same spot where he had been sent up.

His armor protected his body and his own psychokinesis made damn sure that he was still alive. Still, the impact left him in a crater to lie in. "Which direction to Zuriith-ma?" He asked as a few workers came up to help him up. Once being pointed in the proper direction, he took flight in that route.

_**Down in Mahora City**_

"So... you're a robot... right?" Kisara Nanjou asked Chachamaru as the two of them and Miu just left the grocery shop for a few things. The two humans had grown close to one another before they even had heard of the idea of magic. But with her grandfather knowing all about it himself, it was debatable if Miu knew about it as a child herself. Kisara herself had only recently learned of Chacha being a robot herself, and she just wanted to be sure. "You're really built out of synthetic material?"

"Yes." Chacha answered her. "I'm a robot, a gynoid to be more precise."

"Don't look like one." Kisara responded. "You seem more of a human with a form of personality issue. No offense."

"None taken, most people outside Mahora's Research and Development building for Robotics know my real identity." Chacha responded to that. "I could take you along to my next check-up if you want to see for real."

"Er, that won't be necessary, I'll take your word that you're a robot." Kisara said rather swiftly.

"It's really quite exciting to see that..." Miu spoke up first, but she stopped after making sure that the group passing by them was out of range. "...magic can help with our technological advancement in society."

"True, if I have to say it." Chacha said in accordance. "But I was built as the R&D of Robotics' top project. I am still their peak of performance, as I'm being constantly upgraded by Hakase-san."

"Sounds fair enough, then." Kisara said at that notion. "Anything else? Any form of weapons or the like you got?"

"Well, I do have two kinds of weapon forms for my arms, and I have what normal people would say, "Good old Laser beams" in my eyes. I have thrusters, a scanning system, mostly what one would expect of a high technology level robot." Chacha answered her.

"...Any corrupt data files?" Kisara asked this time, and Chacha failed to understand what the redhead said. "I mean, anything out of the ordinary, like... feelings, or... I don't know, invalid set course of actions sometimes?"

Now Chacha didn't know how to respond. For all her being a robot and all, she now could also be counted as a girl. "I-i-i-i... do have recently... acquired human emotions and such... But... don't you think that's a little too personal to ask?"

"Ah, sorry." Kisara responded. "I was just, being curious, that's all."

"You can feel emotions?" Miu joined in on the topic. "What kinds?"

"Erm..." Chacha felt uneasy about answering the two, but she did consider that they were allies now and this close meant that they would have to find out sooner or later. "Well...I'm capable of feeling... embarrassed at times, I can get angry if provoked enough..."

"Anything about love?" Miu asked as her 'womanly senses' snapped into her and she saw a jump from the robot. "Was that inappropriate?"

"I-i-i-i-i-i-i-i..." Chacha started off, but her systems weren't functioning properly and the upper limbs were moving on their own thanks to a glitch in the communal electronic reaction hardware. In other words, her arms were flailing around, and she couldn't find the right words to answer that one. "Da-da-data inaccessible at moment. Please stand by." She managed to get out of herself. As she said that, some steam flew out of her ears in order to relieve the pressure onto her at the moment. "That was a little too bold to ask, Furinji-san."

"I told you before to be careful with your choice of words, Dairy Cow." Kisara scolded her blonde friend, using the nickname that Kisara made for Miu on their first encounter with each other, referring of course to Miu's huge breasts, if one have to be blunt. Kisara herself was small in body structure, and she didn't like that status.

"It was bound to come out sooner or later." The robot girl said quietly as she had stopped to lean against a wall. "I won't say who it is, but... with everything happening right now and someone else also important to him missing... I guess my affections are going to be unrequited for a long time..." She said quietly and with a sad tone. Kisara and Miu could see the circumstances for it all, but if they figured who it was, then they kept it to themselves.

"...Say..." Kisara started after a moment of silence. "...just asking curiously here... do you have some kind of secret or something to keep yourself going mentally?"

Chacha didn't say anything at first, but after thinking a while, she found the one thing she remembered to do before heading back home. "...Nanjou-san, Furinji-san, care to come with me? I wish to show you something."

"Eh?" Both girls said at the same time, but they quickly agreed to it.

"It's not too far away from here." Chacha said as they walked up to an old building. "Here we are."

"This is it?" Kisara questioned the green haired girl's choice of stopping. "Why are we here, to begin with?"

"I asked you to come with me, and I brought you here." Chacha answered her and rooted in the bag to retrieve a few small cans of food and some bird food. "This is what I do in my own free time, when I just...want some peace and quiet for me and my little friends here."

"Your little friends?" The two humans repeated the words and shortly afterward, they heard a small 'mew' somewhere. It didn't take long before several small adorable (awww!) kittens along with a few birds came down to greet the girls.

_The word 'KITTENS!' was echoed a few times by a pair of cat-loving, squealing girls, who were heard across half the city..._

_**The City of Zuriith-ma!**_

It was possibly the most grand thing any of them had ever seen. Megalomesembria was grand in itself, but that had magic in spades. **This** was something else. The city walls themselves were massive, built out of white sturdy obsidian, crafted by well trained Githyanki hands and minds. The capital was massive itself with loads of wide streets, tall buildings made of marble and filled to the brim with people from all the four species. Merchants were haggling with one another to outdo themselves at selling and making profit from their goods. A few guards in actual Steel chain-mail much like the old Roman Lorica Hamata, with some added features like a plate armored right arm, complete with leather straps to keep it on, patrolled the streets, saluting the hover crafts as they passed by.

The upper glass of the crafts seems to melt into the more sturdy material, allowing the passengers to take a look around the whole city as they were passing through. Several onlookers saw the two girls with Efromm, and most began to gossip between each other. Some beautiful human girls took a more interest in the big strong human fighter that was with them instead, trying to catch his attention, to little avail.

"Why are they all looking at us?" Hina asked as they passed through the big marketplace. "It feels uneasy to have so many stare at us."

"It's quite simple." Efromm answered the pink-haired girl. "They want to see the Witch with their own eyes. To them, the Witch is just a rumor among the nobles, of a human girl capable of magic. To see it for themselves is to believe. When it comes to rumors, one is required to do nothing, least of all believe. One can only believe in what you've seen."

"That sounds a bit philosophical." Nodoka said, trying to ignore that one person trying to get the witch to cast a wicked spell.

"When you're a High Monarch, one does have a lot of time to think on a lot of matters. Politics is just a downside to the title." Efromm responded to her. "Given how much one has to think about, one easily forgets how simple it is to just keep thinking instead of attending to other matters."

"So... any more philosophies of the Gith you're willing to share?" Hina asked the blonde Queen.

"Such as?" Efromm asked.

"What does it mean to be a Githyanki?"

Efromm didn't answer that one immediately, but that person who followed their hover craft was starting to get annoying, begging to see the Witch cast a wicked spell, demanding to be turned into an amphibian covered in mucus or at least a Big Horn Sheep. "That is a very rude person. Shall I take care of him?"

Seeing as she was being addressed by this bum, Nodoka decided to take a look at him. "Hey, you must be the Witch." He said as he was jogging beside her spot on the craft. "Come on, aren't you gonna throw a spell? Fry me, burn me, turn me into something." He nagged at her, much to her not shown temperament. "If you really have magic, then do something!" He said loudly at her. That's when she decided she had enough of him.

"Hey, come closer, will you, please?" She asked him kindly and he jumped on to the edge of the hover craft, without it being budged by his weight. The bookworm held up her left hand for him to see. "This is what I got for you."

"Oh, will it fix my left kidney?" He asked as he leaned closer. Her hand was closed, so he couldn't see what it was, save the shiny ring with the diamond. When he got close enough, she snapped the fingers and a bright light ended up right in his face. "My eyes! Now I'm blind too!" He went backwards and fell off the craft, landing roughly on a conveniently placed pile of garbage.

The other two girls couldn't help but laugh at that humor and nearly keeled over in the craft. "Ooh, that guy **so** deserved it!" Efromm managed to get out as applause and cheers came, acknowledging the Witch's existence.

"The look on his face..." Hina managed to get out of herself. "... and when you snapped the fingers..." She tried to control her laughter on that one. "...Whew, I guess I needed that. What was that, really?"

"Just something minor." Nodoka answered her. "It's mostly small, basic spells that I know. I don't have much talent for magic."

"So how come you're at this level?" Hina asked the bookworm. "You were quite something back at Glathk when you blew up those towers."

"The first one was due to a spell scroll Rev'keth-san gave me. And the second spell was just one I managed to cast here on Tu'narath for the first time. I only knew that one in theory before... our abductions."

"Oh." Hina exclaimed. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything bad intentioned."

"I know, Hina." Nodoka responded. "It took me months of practice to just get to the practical application of Magic Arrows, and then I had to study and practice intensely for the White Lightning spell that I used on Demongo-san down there when we first arrived."

"Yeah, it does sound like you don't have much talent." Efromm responded to that story. "But you make up for it with skill, instead there. Even if it is small magic, it is still magic. Don't belittle your own abilities too hard, will you?" The hover crafts eventually stopped in front of a great Palace, built like a minor fortress within the city. "This is where we'll stay until the party begins. If you just come with me, I'll help you get cleaned up and dressed properly. It's not everyday one gets help from a High Queen with your dresscode."

"Um, thank you, Efromm-sama." Nodoka answered her and the blonde Gith smiled gently at the two and then everyone proceeded through the doors to get prepared, followed by a Ser Rev'keth who just landed beside them. Unbeknownst to them, he wasn't the only thing flying up in the sky...

* * *

If the bath they had together was brutal, the next follow up of dressing up was brutal. Having heard of that Japanese wash each other before soaking in the bath, the blonde Gith Queen couldn't help but scrub both girls. The servants there on the other hand were more...gentle with their hands. It took half a dozen bathing servants to get the High Queen away from the two human girls.

Fortunately, the Gith lady had to endure getting dressed as well. It was the most embarrassing thing that happened to the girls whilst the men were bathing. On that matter, it took all the willpower out of Boris to not storm in there to retrieve the girls from Efromm's hands. It also took the strength of their companions to hold him back as well. God, they needed that bath afterward, though the girls were confused with what happened to them.

Hina's clothes reflected partially her personality, but she did want also to show people that she was a girl as well. She was wearing a white colored sleek shirt top with a light brown leather jacket above, showing her masculine side to people, complete with the sleeves and the sash to fasten Masamune at her side. Her bottom part however, was more of the feminine side of her, a rather cute gown to it, not revealing her legs, but easy to move in. To complete her cute side of the outfit, it was equipped with frills of all things.

"Mou, they didn't have to put frills on this outfit..." Hina said as she was walking through the hallway to get to her little sister. By age, she was the elder one between the two. She reached an open door that held Symon and Boris within at least, so she decided to have a look. Symon was getting suited up in some tight silk clothing with two big puffs for shoulders, even though he had seemingly asked for some leather belts so he could have his two blades with him as well to the party. Boris on the other hand was more put into a metallic breastplate and leather underneath it, trimmed neatly and a crimson mantle to complete the set he was wearing. "Still going in armor, Boris?" She couldn't refuse asking him that as she stepped in to lean against the doorway.

"Katsura-san..." Boris noted her presence. "Apparently, they seem to prefer I stay in armor." He answered her. "But I would like something better than this piece of metal they've put on me."

"What's wrong with it?"

"I can instantly tell on its look that it's made from a gold-copper alloy. Soft metal. It's not even practical." Boris complained on the breastplate, giving it a few whacks to bring home the point. "It might withstand my blows, but put me on a battlefield in this and I would be dead sooner than you could say: 'Hallelujah.'"

Hina blinked, twice on that. "You... coming with humor yourself, Boris?"

Boris didn't answer her at first. "...Maybe it's either our situation or you girls, but I've come to think I'm opening up more...socially, so to speak. I've no clear hypothesis so far."

"Well, don't worry about that now." Hina instructed him. "This is a party. You should lighten up and have some fun for yourself as well."

"Fun..." Boris echoed whilst looking away from his charge.

"I'm going to check on Nodoka now. Get finished quickly so we can get this over with." With that, Hina turned back to the hallway to try and find her sister. Some complaints from another room revealed Raydan getting cramped into one by a handful of lady servants at the palace. He shouldn't complain in his position, but they were a bit... rough in helping him get dressed. "Having fun?" She couldn't resist but teasing him.

"Ah! Sensei, help me! They're not going easy on me!" Raydan tried to get her to help, but that face of his was just too funny to not have up.

"You girls are just helping him get dressed, right?" Hina asked the lady servants, who nodded in return to her. "Just don't get too excited about it." With that, she decided to leave. "Have fun!" She cried as her head disappeared from their view.

"No! Wait, Sensei! Don't walk away!" Raydan's pleas for help went unheard as the ladies went to try out another outfit for him. "Argh, not that! Hey, don't take away my scarf, it's a family heirloom!"

_That ought to teach him for skipping that lesson on the ship... _Hina thought to herself, holding a big grin. (Sorry, Vast, nothing personal) _Now where is-_ She stopped her thoughts as she had finally reached the bookworm's room. She found the girl attended to by just one lady servant. "Hey, looking good." She just had to comment on that one.

"Um, thanks, I guess..." Nodoka said as she had been put into a rectangular piece of silk cloth. Just, just one piece. It covered her front and back, but deliberately leaving her right side open, revealing her smooth skin. It was fastened on the shoulders by pins, and the color of it was a soft violet touch with embroidered golden flowers on it and golden edges. Finally, she had open sandals with the laces going up her legs, ending right below the knees. "It's not really what I would prefer to wear for a party like this."

"Oh come on." Hina said walking up to the bookworm and helped tie her belt to the dress. "You do need to reveal some sex appeal to yourself. Some people can easily be distracted by the sexy, sometimes. Much easier to get allies that way."

"I don't think I can agree to that idea." Nodoka defended her case.

"Oh?" Now the pink-haired girl felt some fox ears coming on to her. "Is it because you're naturally shy of yourself, or because you just want to show skin to say... Negi-kun?" Now that got the bookworm's bangs reeling in embarrassment. The blubbering and flailing of Nodoka's arms told Hina that her sister didn't have the purest of minds. "...Don't tell me..."

"It's not like that! Not like that at all!" Nodoka managed to squeal out of herself, grabbing on to the Samurai's shoulders and shaking her head rapidly.

"Your previous actions tell something else, little girl." Efromm's voice said from the doorway. "Here, that amount of skin is just enough to draw attention, but it's really on one's actions that one is seen as something else." She was wearing a similar dress like Nodoka's, save hers was light green with red edges. She was also wearing her own Royal Crown, a circlet that went around her head, and then going up her forehead, into a small spire of pure gold. Finally, in the center and at the bottom of the circlet, there was a big round flawless sapphire. "And don't worry about screwing up on this one."

"Er, should you really speak like that, Efromm-sama?" Hina commented on her speech.

"Oh, you should know, between all the hours of duty and warfare at times, anyone would want to crack their language because of all the stress." Efromm responded to what Hina said. "Come now, we're almost late for the arrivals. They've probably already started announcing the guests."

* * *

"Ow, ow, hey hey hey!" Jashol complained as he was being pushed up the tower by his guard. "Watch it, I bruise easily." He said, trying to get the guard to stop.

"I'm just following orders, human." The Hobgoblin guard said as he led Jashol up to his special holding cell. "It's your problem if you "bruise easily.""

"Fine, I tried at least." Jashol smarted. "At least cut me some slack." He marched on up the stairs with the guard behind him. Reaching a window, the neat lighting from outside attracted his attention. It was the Grand Palace hall, that was starting to get filled with guests from all over Zuriith. Looking out the window further, he noted a flagpole down the window, not far from him. He did have rope with him, but the guard wouldn't let him go.

"Enjoying the view?" His escort asked him as he walked to see the Hall as well.

"Well, I don't complain at that at least." Jashol answered him. That's when he saw the Witch again among the crowds of guests. She did look... highly attractive in that dress.

"Alright, sightseeing's over. Let's hurry up to your cell." His guard shoved him upwards and then proceeded to lock him in his cell, where he could stay during the night.

_**The party begins...**_

The great court hall was made of genuine smooth granite, colored so that it was black and glittering as if it was lightly splashed with water. Speaking of water, the substance was also built into the halls interior, going alongside the walls, covered by transparent glass and running freely even up the pillars with a water glass pipe going up to the roof, before going down into granite sinks that let the water for someone to have a drink of water whenever they felt thirsty. The sinks were equipped with drainage holes to that the water wouldn't overflow. The hall itself was long, starting with stairs descending into the great granite floor covered with a long carpet going up to a magnificent throne made of Ivory, accompanied by two other thrones, flanked by each a camphor wood chair. The quintet of thrones were flanked in turn by two stairs rounding up to a higher level that went further into the Great Palace. And finally, if one decided to bother having a look, the Ivory Throne had an image of a left hand pointing its index finger upwards, against an azure blue background.

The great court hall was filled with noblemen and ladies from all over the Great Kingdom. Humans and Giths mostly, but there were some Rakshasae and Hobbos as well. Each of them had an illustrious name to themselves. Some of which were Merzim, Lord of the Githyanki realm of Huayuel, The Planewalker, or of the Human side; Sir Naerthor, Hero of Linhir, son of Etchelion. Those were just some examples of who these people were.

"Presenting," A caller announced their arrival at the few who had already turned up. "Nodoka Miyazaki, the Witch of Man, daughter of Ashracai, Lord Archmage of the Imperium of Gith, her sister, Hinagiku Katsura, the Wandering Samurai, daughter of Ashracai. Boris, Fist of SAMBO, son of Ivan, descendant of the Rus tribe. Symon, the Living Death, son of Galean, the Merchant King. Raydan, the Exiled Hunter, son of Pryce, descendant of Diorik the Dragonslayer. Bax Hejami'kon, of the Paragon tribe from Samasal, Exiled Alchemist."

"That's an awful lot of names..." Hina whispered to Symon, who was standing next to her.

"It's tradition. Most people have been made nobles through either deed or blood. Blood for most humans, but they are equal to the Giths anyhow." Symon responded.

"Ser Rev'keth, Sword Stalker." The announcer called for Rev'keth, who showed up in just his chain-mail and a regal cape issued for the SS.

"That's it?" Nodoka asked of the Gith Knight.

"Sword Stalkers cut any ties with family, if they have any." The Knight answered her. "I do know who both my fathers are, but I'd rather not have them mentioned, as well."

"Efromm the Golden-Haired, High Queen of Druustya, Successor of Kilroom the Shieldbearer, Favored of the Emperor of Gith." The announcer called their attention to Efromm now, who merely smiled and waved at the others who were there and they bowed in return. "Arthdor, King of the Suebi Lands, descendant of Temerad, uniter of the Suebi Tribes." This was a human king, escorted by two of his own Knights, both in Bronze plate armor, and armed with Steel blades and shields on their backs. "Princess Undarmiel, daughter of King Arthdor, and her brother, Prince Drogo." Arthdor's son, who shared the family's genetics of purple hair, just went with this party, even though he seemed a bit bored by it.

"This is going to take a while, judging by the number of nobles out there." Hina said, seeing as the Announcer by the door was getting tired, and when he saw the big crowd outside, she could swear she heard him groan. "Let's take our time to meet the court and get to know the rest here."

"Good idea." Raydan seconded that. "Let's see if we can gain some support here at least."

With that, the group split up. Bax got caught up with a few Hobgoblin chieftains and warlords along with some Gith Lords to talk with regarding his methods. Rev'keth got interested in talking with a few generals that the High King had at his disposal. The two sisters went together, with Boris in tow. The other two humans of their group git mixed up with some ladies somewhere.

"Lady Witch?" An older white Rakshasa in a yellow robe called to her attention. "I'm Vakaria, First Wizard of the Magocracy here in Zuriith. I must say that I was...quite pleased when I heard about you."

"Quite pleased?" Nodoka repeated the two words.

"Humans has almost always been suppressed by the other races and," Vakaria started. "I feel like it's time for a change, personally. The other members of the Assembly doesn't like the idea, preferring to keep you humans down. Your arrival here on Tu'narath might just change that."

"Um, thank you, Vakaria-dono..." Nodoka answered the old Rakshasa. "I appreciate your unofficial support." She even bowed at him, and he returned the gesture.

"Hmm... perhaps I might help you establish a magic school for humans once you do become High Queen." Vakaria said before being called over by some of the magi that accompanied him to Zuriith-ma. "Please excuse me."

"That, was a really nice man." Hina noted, grinning to her little sister as Warlord Gorgax of the Phalanx tribe of the Hobgoblins was announced to entry. "We might come far with him on our side."

"Yeah," Nodoka responded. "But we got lucky with him. Humans doesn't always have a bad reputation with good reason. It's most likely due to a massive world war that humanity probably started, that led to the other races suppressing them." She whispered to both of them. "Even though I'm supposedly mankind's light of ascendance here, the other races would most likely scorn me for simply existing."

"Perhaps, but those lords who think highly of humans might find you very useful and as a powerful ally." Boris noted as well. "And from what I can tell of the Hobgoblins, they are most likely mercenaries who fight for those with the largest amount of gold. As long as we can pay, they would fight for our side, or at least stay out of the war, until someone makes a higher bid."

"That is most likely to happen." A new, grunt-like voice said next to them, and they were in for a bit of a shock. It was a tall fellow, standing some 6'8 feet, even taller than Boris. But most wondrously, he was covered in scales. Covered in scaly hide, he was strongly built, weighing probably some 300 pounds. His feet were large talons and so were his hands, talonlike claws with three fingers and a thumb on each hand hand, the same for his feet. His head featured a blunt snout, a strong brow and distinctive frills at the cheeks and ears. Behind his brow, a crest of hornlike scales of various lengths resembled thick, ropy hair. He was clad in heavy chain-mail, mixed with Steel plate on a few spots, most notably his shoulders. His scales had a metallic look to them, being silver white in color with the occasional gold here and there. "Pardon me if my appearance frightens you."

"Um... it's fine." Nodoka responded to this big fighter.

"I'm used to magic now, so very little can surprise me now." Hina added to that, and Boris nodded in agreement to that.

"You would then be surprised to know that I was once human, as well." The grunt spoke softly. "Oh, pardon my manners there. I was once named Arthor, son of Uthorius. Now I am Bharash the Dragonborn, son and Champion of Bahamut." To prove his point, he also had a dark blue tunic on himself, showing a white dragon-like head facing the left.

"Champion of Bahamut?"

"I once held a deep hatred for Tiamat and the Gith when I was a child. A cadre of them ransacked and killed my whole village. I managed to survive beneath some rubble, and then made my way to a human city. Throughout my own life as a human, I was shown many dreams of me fighting for the good of all mankind..."

"Lord Fiden of Tother-ka." The announcer called as a new Gith lord showed up in elaborate clothing.

"...Eventually I heard a call and I answered out of curiousity. Turned out that I had to swear an oath to fight for mankind. Next thing I knew, I was... like this." Bharash finished his story. "Eventually, I met up with the High King of Zuriith and he showed me that there is more to the world than fighting Giths and protecting just mankind. Since then, I've been traveling the world protecting those who need it... Heh, it's a long story, I'd rather not bore you any further."

"And your reason for approaching us?" Hina asked of him.

"Every soul have by now heard of the famous Witch of Man. It was confirmed back at Glathk from the reports and frankly, I believed it from the start. If humans can still be exposed to magic occurrences, why would a mage be any different?"

"But I'm not a mage by the spells you've probably heard of, Bharash-san." Nodoka defended her case. "Why do you think that I am even from this world?"

"I never said that." Bharash countered. "That you have magic, is enough for me. But don't expect that things should go lightly for you. That is all for now. Should you need me, I'll be talking with that Gith Knight who was with you." With that, Bharash left the humans alone, going off in some direction, leaving the girls to fend for themselves with Boris.

_**On a branch of the World Tree**_

This happened about a couple of days before Nodoka's band arrived at the party. This time it was relaxation for a few people of the small growing 'Ala Alba-KE-Shinpaku Rengou-Alliance' as it was called at the moment. They had yet to figure out a proper name for their whole assembled team, under Aris' command, with Eva, Fate and Negi as subcommander so far. Well, Nijima counted also, but only as a commander apprentice from the others' point of view.

Negi, as well as Yue, Konoka, Kenichi for once, Asakura, Ukita and Luna were all together on one of the bigger branches of the World Tree. The Shinpaku members were quite amazed at the sheer size of the tree and it was very difficult for the two to climb up the damn thing. But one could say that the view was worth the pain of nearly falling down from the great tree trunk.

But apart from the view, they did need to talk to each other about something, anything. It's always been training, training, training since Fate and Aris came to Mahora. Along with that, they didn't really get to make bonds with each other.

"...have you seen Setsuna-san, Konoka-san?" Negi asked their healer curiously, as none of them had seen the swordswoman ever since Shinpaku came to Mahora.

"No." Konoka answered him sadly. "...I haven't heard from Secchan since we went to Ryouzanpaku. Maybe she really did leave."

"Who's Setsuna-san?" Kenichi asked, since he haven't met her.

Both Negi and Konoka procured their Pactio cards they had with Setsuna. "Sakurazaki Setsuna." Negi introduced her to them, at least who she was, not her person. "A Shinmeiryouu blade user, one of my partners and Konoka-san's childhood friend. She's... I don't know, our group's lieutenant, so to speak, if I have to use military terms."

"Secchan is one of our most valued members, and my partner as well." Konoka added as Kenichi and Ukita looked at the two cards. "I aspire to be a Magister Magi, like Negi-kun, and I wanted Secchan to be my partner so I can achieve that. But I've been unable to contact her for the last few days. She's been missing."

"Ooh, she's very cute." Ukita said. "But how come you got cards of her?"

"That's because of the Pactio they have with her." Yue answered the Judo user. "A Pactio is a special magic system we magi have as a form of protection and bonding. A partner is just a slang for Minister Magi, or disciple, so to speak of it. Most of us seniors in Ala Alba have entered a Pactio with Negi-sensei, which allows us to have telepathic communication with each other, and also allows us, the Ministra Magi to use an artifact if need be."

"So how do you enter a Pactio, if that is so good?" Kenichi asked now.

"I was seeing that question coming straight away." Negi said deadpanned. "...Luna-san, yes? Think you could tell them that?" He required of his partner.

"...um... do you guys want a simple explanation, or do you want to see it?" Luna asked of the two men, and Negi figured that she would go for one straight away on him. He had mainly given up on trying to defend himself from these things, since he was growing up and the girls were indeed getting more aggressive.

"...Want to see it?" Ukita repeated it, and before they knew, Luna planted a kiss on Negi's lips. Given that she had fallen in love with him using Asuna's feelings, it was no surprise to the girls that she would do it. "Eh!? Is that how you do the Pactio?!" Ukita screamed at seeing her finishing the liplock.

"Well, it's one way to do it." Negi answered the older man. "We know few other methods, if any, but kissing is probably the easiest way there is to it. As you might figure out for yourself, many partners and their masters even marry one another..."

"Oh, that's so..." Kenichi said, before he got himself a day dream of Miu and himself making a Pactio together, if it was possible...

"Got someone you like, Shirahama-kun?" Asakura asked bluntly and he was sent flailing. "Ha, I hit the jackpot there. Care to tell us, or shall I have to guess?"

"No, no, no, no," Kenichi shook his head rapidly to try to get the focus off him. "I don't have anyone! Miu-san and I are just friends!" He freezed up when he realized he had said Miu's name. Instant Self-destruction.

"So... you and Furinji-san?" Asakura asked him now as the heat was on. "I could see that happening. Any...no, I'm not gonna dwell that deep." Asakura turned away from him and looked out the view instead.

_There are so many words that could go with 'any'..._ Kenichi thought to himself as he sweatdropped to himself, there.

"What about you, Ukita-san?" Yue asked curiously of the judo thrower. "Have you got someone special?"

"...Well..." Ukita started, thinking of someone. "...I hope you don't tell anyone this... It's, uh... Kisara-san, the Valkyrie."

"Kisara-san?" Asakura heard him. "I'm feeling generous today, so I'll let that one go, too."

"Why the sudden kindness, Asakura-san?" Negi inquired of the reporter. "You weren't this kind when you first discovered my identity as a mage."

"Is it because of that letter you got this morning?" Konoka asked innocently of her and Asakura went a bit stiff. "Seems I hit right."

"...Aa." Kazumi answered the healer. "It was from Vito-san. One of those guys we met back at Arcadia, remember him? Just a little check-up from him and a status report on how he's doing. Managed to survive a huge frost worm recently."

"Vito-san?" Negi asked now. "That Monster Hunter?"

"Yeah, him. He seems like a nice guy, at least. Maybe once this is over, I might consider going on a date with him." Kazumi said, still looking out the view.

"Sounds nice..." Ukita said. "What about you, Negi-kun? Got someone you're thinking of?"

"Eh, me?" Negi flinched at that.

"Yeah, come on." Kenichi joined in on this topic. "A boy your age must have at least a girl you like."

"I, er, I..." Negi stammered on this one, really wishing that the topic hadn't switched to whom he likes in the class. There were... a number of them really. He didn't want to admit it but, over time, since they left the Magic World after saving it temporarily from Fate's group, he had begun to actually... notice the girls. In noticing, it could be more defined as... seeing how mature looking they looked, that they were quite... beautiful for their ages. He must have spent too much time in Eva's resort if that was happening to him. He also began to recall the numerous times he had gotten involved with them. It was a wonder that he was still a virgin. "... there are quite lot, really." He began to answer the two fellow guys. "I mean, I don't like them in the way you like Miu-san or Kisara-san, truthfully. I just like them all, equally. They're all nice, they are very pretty, I'll admit that. But I'm a teacher, so those relationships are a bit wrong, so..."

"_**Sensei... please let me show you how I feel..." **_Nodoka's image rang in his head at that moment, making him recall that time when Haruna had locked both him and the bookworm inside the library, and the mangaka had given Nodoka a love potion, possibly filled with some kind of aphrodisiac. It felt like deja-vu to him, since she had been on top of him before, but the first time, she did have her clothes on fully. Needless to say, the damage was done and Negi steamed of embarrassment from his ears furiously.

"No, no, no, no, no!" He scolded himself. "I can't think of things like that! Not with my students!" He shook his head violently and fast. "Not with Nodoka-san, at least!" He said that one in a hurry, but the others managed to understand that one, definitely.

"Are you...Negi Springfield?" An unfamiliar voice said further out on the big branch they were on, speaking in perfect Japanese. Taking a look in the direction where it came from, they saw a tall man dressed in an elegant robe, the colors of it constantly shifting among themselves, going from red to blue, to green, to name a few colors. He was certainly as tall as Takahata was, but he seemed more of a mage than the Death Glasses. But he was more to it, as the sun showed them also what he really was as well.

"...Githyanki!" Negi exclaimed and almost immediately, he charged straight on against the Gith, fists fully charged up. Only, he passed right through the enemy mage like he was thin air. _Eh? Did I just pass through an illusion just then? That is not his real form?_ Yue now came at him, with her Valkyrie blade drawn out.

"A real sword blade?!" Kenichi exclaimed seeing the big weapon. "Is that even legal?!"

Yue didn't hear him, but went right at the Gith, who merely deflected it with ease, using his wrist and hand against the side of the blade to divert it away from himself, and then in a swift motion, used the same arm to launch a counterattack against Yue, just stopping his fist right in front of Yue's face. Negi managed to come back at the mage, but his attack was grasped by the Gith's other hand that was free and held him still. He had also begun charging a spell with the hand he was addressing the philosopher with, to indicate that he was prepared in case she tried again. Negi was just held down with force.

"...This is a very rude tutor in magic you have, Konoka of the Fujiwara Clan." He addressed now the healer with tranquility in his voice and looking at her. It took a while for Konoka to remember fully, but it hit her in the end.

"...Ashracai-san?" She said and both battle magi stopped trying to get away from the Gith. He stopped his spell directed at Yue and let Negi's hand go, and repositioned himself. "So it is you, Ashracai-san." Konoka said with relief. "I thought you'd look familiar."

"Eh?" Several other Earthlings said as it turned out that the two of them knew each other. "Konoka-san, you know this Githyanki?" Negi asked the healer.

"Do I ever?" Konoka responded to him. "This is Ashracai-san, the mage that's looking after Nodoka."

"Pleasure to meet you, other children. I am Ashracai of the Githyanki clan of Samasal. As Konoka said, I am a mage and I am indeed looking after your friend Nodoka." The Gith introduced himself, bowing to them neatly. In return, Negi bowed back.

"Uh, well, I'm Negi Springfield. Sorry that we attacked you just then."

"It is fine. It wasn't a good impression we left on you the first time our races met" Ashracai excused himself as well. "You have no doubt questions about how your friend is doing."

"Erm... yeah, we probably have, but I got one right now." Luna spoke up, pointing down to the ground, directing the group's attention down to the ground to a trio standing by the World Tree, but not having seen them, or if they were interested in them. They were also Githyanki, but they seem to wear more... archaic clothing and armed with vorpal steel blades. At least one of them was wearing a robe of sorts. "Are those other Githyanki with you?"

"No, they're not. I came here on my own to this world." Ashracai answered the girl and looked more carefully at the others Gith that had arrived, probably simultaneously as he had. But as he studied them more, the more scornful he grew and his eyes began to flame up, literally. "...They're **Loyalists**..." He said with fury in his voice.

"Loyalists...?" Negi repeated the word as the trio on the ground were moving towards the main school building.

_**Back at the party**_

"High King Rufus!" Another announcer called from the other end of the great hall, diverting the guests' attention to the higher level just above the Ivory throne flanked by the other four.

"Rufus?" Nodoka repeated, surprised that that was the name of the King.

"Isn't that a human's name?" Boris continued on that subject.

"A human as High King? I thought that only Gith could be crowned High Monarchs." Hina whispered as a form began to emerge from the upper level above the thrones. "And weren't you considered the first non-Gith to be made High Queen, Nodoka?"

"Ah, there you are." Efromm said as she and Bharash came out of the crowd to fetch the two human girls. "Come on. We are the special guests here. Rufus expects us up there." She whispered to them as she and Bharash pushed them up to the front of the crowd to where the thrones were.

"Hold on, hold on." Hina said as Boris followed after the Dragonborn. "Who is this Rufus to begin with?"

Finally, the form emerged fully. High King Rufus was an old human man, seeming like a true wizard to Nodoka's perspective. Clad in an elegant robe colored both Amaranth red and Imperial Purple, with silk clothing underneath, much like contemporary clothing back home or something similar, he held the image of a great King in the air about himself. He was old, having a great beard to himself, and carrying a large metal rod with his right hand, as he walked down the stairs. As a crown, he bore a very old and plain Bronze circlet, made dark green due to exposure of oxidation and corrusion. He finally reached the Ivory throne and instead of sitting down, he turned to the crowd of guests that was gathered in front of him. "Greetings once again, friends of old, both foreign and domestic." He spoke with a calm and cheerful tone as he raised his rod. "I hope that everything here has been to your liking so far."

"Finally found you girls." Symon whispered as he, Rev'keth and Raydan approached the girls. Bax was probably still looking for them, himself. "Never thought any of us would see High King Rufus in person."

"So far, we have all lived prosperous together alongside the magic of this world, and none has ever doubted its power and will," Rufus continued his own speech as he scanned the hall for someone. "And now, for some, the prayers of many a human have gone answered. The Lords of Spells and Magic, Azuth and Tarong, have smiled on the Human race and granted someone to wield the Art."

"He's just boasting." Efromm whispered in the bookworm's ear.

"I, my friends Efromm the Golden-Haired of Druustya and Bharash the Dragonborn," To that notion, both mentioned nobles stepped forward to either side of the High King himself. "We hereby present to you who have yet to meet her... the Witch of Man, Favored of Azuth, Nodoka Miyazaki." He spoke clearly so that everyone heard him, and the nobles all cheered and applauded at the bookworm's name.

"Eh?" Nodoka said as she looked around, seeing everybody applauding, before looking at Hina who looked back at her. The two soon looked at the High King, who gestured for both of them to walk up to him. Hesitating at first, Hina first shoved Nodoka forward a bit and the Witch caught the hint that she should go first to show the audience whom the Witch was between the two. First Nodoka walked up slowly to the two High Monarchs, then followed Hina.

"In all my years, have I never seen such a beautiful face of young girls I have seen before." Rufus praised the bookworm, using a soft hand to lift her up to where he stood, as Hina went to stand next to Efromm. Many bowed in front of her, as she turned to face the audience. Her companions did the same to her. "As I heard earlier today that she had cast a spell in the street, I hereby acknowledge this young lady to be a genuine magic user, and see her now as the current successor to the throne of Samasal. What say this court?"

"**AYE!**" The court said with one strong voice. Nodoka couldn't help but try to say something to them.

"Um... thank you all, for your kind support." She said meekly and bowed at them gently.

"Now then, with everything settled for now, let the feast beg-" Rufus didn't finish that sentence because he seemed to have sensed something disturbing in the air. His face turned a bit sour and he scanned the hall rapidly for something that could be the origin of that disturbing feeling.

"Something the matter, old man?" Bharash asked the High King.

"I sense something. It's not pleasant, and it seems hostile or something like it." Rufus answered back to the Champion. But before he could do anything else, a powerful bolt of lightning ran out throughout the hall, aiming for the old man. It struck hard on him, making him cry out in pain before he collapsed backward down on the Ivory throne, smoke emerging from him.

"Rufus!?" Efromm cried out as she went to check how the Human King felt. Shortly after the first lightning struck, several others did the same, this time in the crowd of guests and nobles, followed by eruptions of stone from the floor and walls, along with the water overflowing in the chaos, drenching several guests before they somehow froze up partially encased in Ice.

"Rufus-sama!?" The Bookworm exclaimed, running up to the High King and seeing as the old human had finally bought the farm. Trying to deny it, she tried to wake him up by shaking his torso. "Rufus-sama?"

"Guards, surround the Hall!" Hina cried out, having drawn Masamune out and walking up to shield her little sister, alongside Bharash. "Seal the windows, bar the doors! Whoever cast those spells is certainly still in here! Let nobody out of here!"

"You heard her!" Bharash screamed at them, making the guards snap into action as well. "No one leaves this hall without my permission!" He had his sword drawn as well, a strong, dark blue double-edged blade with glowing runes and a lighter blue edge.

"Come on, Nodoka." Hina said as Boris came up to join them, as did Rev'keth, sword drawn as well, as he was clad in his armor, despite the party. "Think you can cook something up for this disaster?"

"I could try, but we need to-"

"It's certainly been a while, Miyazaki Nodoka." An all too familiar voice cut in, making the purple haired girl stop in her actions and shiver with a dread she knew just as well. "It would seem that you have gained some new allies, since you are cut off from the rest of Ala Alba." The great crowd that was uninjured at least, made a lot of space for a figure wearing a hat that stepped out to eye the bookworm. "Apologies for Rufus-sama, but I didn't really want to take any chances with him on board." The figure took off his hat and tossed it aside, making Nodoka go stiff at the sight of him. "Considering that factor in the way, wouldn't you agree on that matter, Mind reader girl?"

Fate Averruncus.

_Oh f- _

* * *

_The television screen went multicolored, right in front of the crew's eyes. Vastler75 along with a few others are just standing by a control panel, staring at the screen as it bleeps on._

"_What just happened?" Vast asked as he just stared at the screen._

"_We just lost picture." Daten, the youngest answered._

"_I know that. But what caused the picture to go away?"_

"_I'll go check." Another responded._

"_What's going on?" Nodoka asked, as the rest of the class along with a few of the OCs that are part of PotM, were watching the development procedure._

"_Guys, Kurush just disconnected himself." Nyrath answered Vast's first question._

"_What?" Vast exclaimed surprised. "Why?"_

"_The bloody machine have a tendency to be a bit loud, in case you haven't noticed." Nyrath answered him. "K's got highly sensitive hearing. And he was in it longer than he normally should be." To try and shut down the noise, S/he gave it a kick. "Shut the bloody thing down."_

"_Kurush, you okay?" Vast asked his fellow author._

"_Yeah, I'm fine." Kurush answered him. "I just need to get somewhere tranquil and quiet."_

"_Can't we see the end of that scene?" Negi asked him._

"_I'm sorry, but I can't get in that thing just now." Kurush answered and walked out of there._

"_Um, we seem to having some technical malfunction right now, everyone. We'll have to take a break here." Vast told the people watching, gaining much groaning from the audience. "I'm sorry, but K can't get in there right now. In the meantime, may I suggest you try and look at my Fic: _**Negima: Truth and/or Dare** _in the meantime whilst we wait for Kurush to come back?"_

"_Is that the one where you seem to be like a Marty Stu character?" Rufus, the old man who got fried in the scene and sitting next to Fashtar, asked Vast._

"_Well, I'm the author of it and we do make reasonable stuff at least."_

"_Well, I suppose we could have a look at it at least." Fashtar said and the next second, the two weren't there._

**A/N: Error, author not in place. Please put author back in seat. Error, author not in place...**


	34. Repeat 'Crap' a few times, please

"_He's back!" Daten cried to the public as a more, collected Kurush came in through the doors, having a glass of water with him as well._

"_Sorry it took so long, but my ears needed a check up as well." K said as he moved with hastily speed to the Fiction-Machine in order to make the next chapter of PotM._

"_About time," Someone, perhaps an OC, said. "We've been waiting for ages."_

"_Whoever said that, should leave and give a hand at reading Twilight Saga instead." Kurush retorted, and Whoever said that promptly shut up. But once he got to the machine he noticed something different. "This is not the usual one I sit in."_

"_It's improved." Vast said, holding some sort of blueprint. "It's got tuned down on the noise, much safer to use, no annoying voice, and it's Nature Friendly."_

"_But the last one was Nature Friendly as well." Kurush responded to him._

"This version was designed for comfort, as well as making sure that it does its performance better than Mk 1." _A new female voice said, emerging from the fiction-Machine._

"_And why does she sound like EDI from ME2?" Kurush asked suspiciously at Vast, who merely smiled meekly. "Never mind, I'll take a seat anyway. Everyone get to your positions." He instructed them as he took his seat in the thing._

"Kurush has taken the seat." _The Machine voice spoke. _"All operators sound off from their stations."

"_Fanfic imaging is in place, just waiting to be downloaded." Daten said from his seat._

"_All necessary information is downloading right now." Nyrath said as s/he was pressing several buttons._

"_Character profiles are in place now." Vast said. The visor lowered down in front of Kurush's face as his friend said that. "We're all good to go, K. Kick some butt in there."_

"_And... gently..." K said as he moved his left hand to a lever to push forward._

"_'ERE 'E GO! 'ERE 'E GO! 'ERE 'E GO!" Several of the authors shouted in chant as Kurush slammed the lever down to activate the Fiction-Machine._

**

* * *

**

A/N: I feel that I need to do some notes for the last chapter on a lot of things there. But since I was disconnected, I couldn't make them. But here they are.

**-First, I'd like to apologize to runewizarddd, who was the one who actually made Jashol. I forgot the penname, that's all.**

**-The fight between Negi and Kenichi, I got lazy, and the chapter was already long as it could be. I swear, the computer I'm working on wouldn't even let me edit without freezing up _every single time._**

**-Ansem, I added to Bax that bronze sword, as it was explained why they have weapons, lest they be killed.**

-"_Mare foc , inimă meu a face pe plac la! A vedea meu foes şi fibros pe ei jos pentru eu"_**is actually Romanian for; "Great Fire, hear my plea! See my enemy and strike them down for me!" or something like that, I don't recall now.**

**-The wizards' song "In the Dark of the Night" is NOT owned by me. It is owned by Don Bluth, director of a few Disney like animated movies like **_**An American Tail, Land Before Time **_**and **_**Anastasia**_**, from which the song comes from. It fitted in with their situation, so I decided to give them the song along with a few changed lyrics. Being the 6****th**** coolest Villain Song helps a lot. If you don't know the list I'm talking of, go see the Nostalgia Critic on .**

**-In the manga of Kenichi, Miu and Kisara are BIG cat lovers. Just seeing one makes them go nuts and ignore the environment. **

**-Bharash the Dragonborn is based on an actual concept from D&D, should one look up on ForgottenRealms Wiki. Which does remind me that the Gith, Hobgoblins and Rakshasa -comes from D&D, which is owned by Wizards of the Coast, NOT me. I write this merely for entertainment, not profit.**

**-Finally, if anyone is uncertain about their looks, or haven't checked up on D&D, I've updated my profile with images of the Githyanki, Hobgoblins and Rakshasa. They will be there as long as this fic will be here.**

**Now, as I also add that I need to make shorter chapters, let's continue with the madness!**

* * *

"...Let me understand this, straight with you, good messengers...." Konoemon said with an understandably angry tone at the three Githyanki in archaic armor, with the robe wearing one in the front of them. "...you want me to authorize an expedition of a special group of magic users and fighters, to help you strike down a little girl that I know, personally?"

"...This is just a small request from our side." The robe wearing Gith explained to the old mage. "We understand your fury about this, but sometimes, one just...has to let go."

"And you expect me to just let go of the hand and life of a girl I know, a student here as well?" The dean retorted back at the Gith. "We humans don't share the lack of respect for life as you seem to have."

"...True, but you humans also tend to look out for yourselves as well. You would even throw away the life of a child, if it was to save your own. There is no denying that." The Gith messenger said, as the door opened to reveal a troubled Aristodemus along with Takahata, Gandolfini and Averruncus walking into the dean's office.

"Sorry, we're late, but we needed to collect ourselves before coming here to listen to this...ridiculous-sounding request." The Spartan said as he walked with near demonic speed past the Githyanki, just standing there to see the newcomers. None of them save Fate seemed happy to see gith this far into Mahora itself.

"We were told to understand that we were to listen to a request of sorts." Gandolfini said, almost snarling at the Giths.

"...Is this everyone in high command here?" The first messenger inquired, unbeknownst to all of them that there was a little infiltrating party up on the roof, standing on an invisible floor, so they could hear what was going on, yet remain unseen.

"...This is some incredible skill you have, Ashracai-san..." Yue said amazed, seeing as the Arch-mage had not only made a small dimension door from the World Tree to the dean's office, he also created a whole floor, without even chanting a single word, or even use a catalyst for it.

"I merely do what I can do." The Githyanki mage responded to the philosopher.

"...Now, then. Let's hear the full story on what it is you want from us." Aristodemus demanded of the messengers. "We don't really share the best history between our races."

"Very well." The first Gith said gently. "If that is what you ask. We are Githyanki, yes. But we are not part of the faction that had attacked you in the past. We serve a different master among the Githyanki. We serve the original one, Vlaakith."

"Vlaakith?"

"Our Queen. She is the one who sent us here, to request your aid. You see, one little girl from this world, has been given a prophecy elsewhere. What it's about doesn't matter. What does matter is what needs to be done to fulfill that prophecy."

"And?"

"Let me put it like this: In order to fulfill this, she needs to gain control over a certain scepter of power. Our Queen holds this scepter. Since this prophecy would certainly strike a blow against the Imperium, we feel that this human wouldn't let go of that power the scepter holds."

"If this girl is such a threat to you and your Queen..." Fate asked of them. "Why don't you take care of it yourselves?"

"Ah, now that is where it gets...interesting." The Gith messenger answered the construct. "You see, she is at the very heart of the Imperium, their very home world as they claim it to be. We can't get there without being detected. In an immediate circumstance, we would just be taken for another ship of theirs, but they would find us eventually."

"And you turn to us, because...?" Aris inquired.

"A few reasons, but to put it short, you're in need of some form of reinforcements. The United States here won't let you have their magi, and China says it is not in the best interest of their people that you gain control over their military forces. Ignorant fools, I say. If they're going to act like that, despite what you say, then we'll step in for you."

"And the other reasons?" Takahata interrupted them.

"We came to you because you are the best in your fields of operation, and you have the vital opposition against her."

"Explain." Aris told him.

"The prophecy also stated that she needs to face two individuals: A sword-wielder descended from the divine, and a Gorgon. We do not know the full term of a Gorgon, but we are certain that you know." The messenger answered first.

"Gorgon; in ancient times, referring to a trio of supposedly immortal sisters, each beautiful as the gods." Fate began the explanation of the term. "The most famous of them, Medusa, was believed to be more beautiful than the goddess Athena, that the goddess was so jealous that she put a curse on her, so that anyone she laid her eyes on was turned into stone. From her, Basilisks are descended from, as it's believed. Nowadays, the term Gorgon is used to refer to Magi who specialize in stone and Petrifaction spells."

"Among other things." Aris said, having his arms crossed. "But even so, if we agree to this request, what is it that you offer to help with?"

"We got espionage, saboteurs... we could even have doomsday speakers shout in the streets that the sky will fall down upon them all, and people would listen. Enough so that the governments would have to take action. But if that is not enough, we can always hide a legion of about... 3 million seasoned veteran here on Earth until the Imperium shows up. The human magi's armies, along with our psionic powers, would drive back those traitors until we reach their borders."

"And in taking the fight to them, you would be able to gain more people of your own, as well as this war could be won swiftly, in comparison to how long your race has stood." Aris concluded as well.

"Oof, I would hesitate to make a deal with them, if I was that man." Ashracai said as the sneaking group watched over this conversation.

"Why is that?" Luna asked of the Gith mage that stayed up with them.

Down there, Aris decided to ask something of them. "Hang on, why did you call this, Imperium 'traitors'? Have they done something to you?"

"...Hence why we are two factions." The Gith messenger answered. "Millenia ago, whilst this planet's inhabitants were still using copper as the main metal, they rallied to one who believed that our Queen's ways were wrong and sought to get out. He even committed the sin of slaying a fellow Githyanki when he was summoned to appear before her. And he was a clever one. He had gathered the leaders of several Githyanki clans to his cause and they broke out of our ways. We have been called 'Loyalists' since then, because they deem us too old-fashioned and dying, whereas it is they whose heretical beliefs will bring down our race."

"I see." The Spartan said softly. "I will not question your hatred for them, nor whether your beliefs or theirs are wrong, but I need to think over this decision." He looked up to the roof, perhaps unknowingly that he was staring straight at Negi. However, Negi was seeing him at the same time, and that's when he realized that Aris had known they had been there all along. "...Come back in two days' time, and you'll get your answer."

"...Very well, then." The messenger said, and gestured for his two escorts as they seemed to be. "We'll be back in two days. I hope you'll see reason and answer our request." With that, the trio of Githyanki left the office, leaving the humans to think on this.

* * *

"Surprised to see me again, Miyazaki? It's only been about seven months." Fate said calmly as he was standing the middle of all the rubble and chaos that he had done in the court hall. And he did seem different from before. He did have his old blue school like uniform, but he was also wearing a beige long coat on top of it, along with a satchel worn over himself as well. He was holding a piece of parchment in his right hand, along with a few wood pieces in his left. "Or is it that you actually expected me to be dead, back at Ostia?"

Nodoka didn't say anything at first, being shocked at seeing the construct again. What was most shocking of all, was that he was on Tu'narath to begin with. Seeing as she was stunned over his presence here, Fate decided to continue. "Oh, I see. You **are** shocked to see me. Hmm, not surprised there myself, really. Negi-kun was stunned to see me again as well." He said calmly, using the same tone as he always did.

"...Nodoka, you know this guy?" Hina asked her sister, brandishing Masamune at the white haired mage, ready to attack if he made a move. "Nodoka?"

"Cat got her tongue, I suppose." Fate said, shrugging his shoulders. "Allow me, then." He took the time to make a bow to the dressed up party. "I am Fate Averruncus, experienced geomantic and hydromantic mage, at your service. Miyazaki and I happen to be... acquaintances from her time in the Magic World. She does have a rather intriguing book."

"Fate Averruncus..." Hina repeated to herself. "...Is that supposed to be a reference to the Roman god of averting harm and childbirth?"

"...I doubt that personally, but one never really knows fully with magic these days." Fate responded to the pink-haired girl. Around that time, Nodoka managed to get her stability back.

"...So how come that you are here on Tu'narath? What are you doing here?" She asked the construct.

"I suppose that's fair to know, as it's virtually impossible to keep a secret from you." Fate responded, putting away the parchment in the satchel, making the bookworm realize that it was a spell scroll. "A couple of days ago, I was asked by a group of other Githyanki to help you...fail, I believe they put it as. Mind you, I'm going to get paid or anything of that sort for this little favor."

"...tch. Figures. Ifrith must be desperate if he hired you to get to Nodoka." Rev'keth said as he drew his sword, preparing to attack as well.

"Ifrith?" Fate asked the Gith Knight. "Oh no, whoever this Ifrith is, it was not him. I was hired by Vlaakith the Lich Queen for this task."

"What!?" Several Giths in the hall, including Efromm and Rev'keth exclaimed, hearing that name. "You work for that witch!?"

"Why, yes." Fate answered them. "Although I didn't see her in person, I guess she was quite persistent that I would do this."

"And how could you think of even saying yes to working with that soul-sucking harlot!?" Efromm demanded of the geomancer.

"Hmm, let see... I do a small favor for her, for the chance of getting rid of the one who can find out all my plans with ease thanks to that book she has, with no Negi-kun here, no Magic-canceling knight as well, no powerful half-demons nearby and no fellow magi to help out... How could I not?" Fate responded as several magic circles emitted around him, and he tossed two of the wood pieces down on the floor, to make two more circles. "Valkyries, I summon you to heed my orders." He spoke as two armored women with winged helmets brandishing spears. Behind him, however, came also big clockwork golems, forged out of bronze that resembled gold, they had massive shoulder plates, which had a similar arm-guard down at the lower arms. Both sides embraced a large tree, or World Tree, on both pads.

"Oh, they don't seem so tough." Raydan said, drawing out his Katana for this coming battle. "We can take those."

The great clockwork golems unleashed great Katar like blades from their arms, one of them giving a big roar as well.

"...You were saying?" Symon asked of the Monster Hunter.

* * *

"Should we really agree to this?" Gandolfini asked the group as they were in the dean's office, shortly after the messengers had left. "Send a team out to...eliminate a student from this school?"

"We can use names on this, Gandolfini-sensei." Aris said, not sounding happy. "They did tell you who it was they were talking about before we came in here, didn't they, Dean?"

"They did." The principle even provided the picture of the girl. "She's one of Negi-kun's students, even." He said as the Spartan saw the pic of Nodoka lying on the desk.

"Why would they even bother with asking us to begin with?" Fate inquired as he picked up the picture to see her. "They could just train up someone in petrifaction themselves and try somebody else descended from divinity to do this."

"That they could do, no doubt." Aris responded. "But I feel that this is something of a test to them, for us. It could be that they want us to cut ties with those who cannot fend for themselves, and in getting rid of Miyazaki, would be a devastating psychological blow to us, not to mention morale would sink here at Mahora. We would get the support we need, yes, but I don't think that they would give us the aid simply like that, for nothing."

"So what do we do?" Takahata asked.

"I took the call to make a choice, I decide what to do. On Monday February 23rd, two days from now, do I give them the answer." The Spartan answered, crossing his arms. "Tacky, Gandolfini, please return to the classes and then inform the other magi here of what transpired here."

"What about Negi-kun?" Takahata inquired now. "What should we say to him?"

"That will be taken care of, Takamichi." The dean answered him. "Now, do return to your lessons."

The two teachers didn't like doing this, but they did as they were told and left the office, leaving Averruncus, Aristodemus and the dean to discuss among themselves of what to do. "Now then, **if **we take on this mission... I'm not saying that we are, but **if** we did, who would we send to do this task?"

"Finding a divinely descended person who can use a sword wouldn't be easy to do." Fate started. "I could fill the role of being this Gorgon, as I am one by definition of what I told the Githyanki. But if that is in disfavor, then I could always take an apprentice in that matter."

"Finding this divine person isn't a problem. We know the person who fits that just fine." Aris said as well.

"Who?"

"Setsuna-kun." The dean said. "As much as she fits the bill, I doubt that she would want to strike down a classmate even if ordered to. And she's been missing for a few days."

"What about Kagurazaka?" Fate asked. "Do you think she's eligible?"

"No. It would depend on how one sees the Maker, but that fellow was never a god to begin with." The Spartan responded to that. "He may have created a whole world, full with people, creatures and plants, but he is still just one person. That Asuna is descended from him doesn't prove that she's of divine blood. Besides, that would also make Negi-kun a choice as well."

"Not morally speaking. I doubt he would approve of this, to begin with." Fate added to this.

"True." The commander said. "Who else would we send on this?"

"We would need some sort of communication between the team and here, meaning we need a transport as well."

"I'll see if I can get something. There is also the need for a 2nd-in-command tactician for this mission. In the event that the first team leader would get incapacitated, then the 2nd-in-command would take charge and investigate further details into the Imperium whilst they are there."

"I see." Fate said. "The whole task of making Miyazaki fail would be just a secondary mission. We could have a full espionage of the Imperium, and it's forces, giving us enough preparation for our defenses."

"So... what do you kids think of all this?" Aris decided to get the little sneakers out to talk openly with them down in the office. "There's no longer a need to hide."

A few seconds later, the figures of Negi & co, along with a new tall fellow appeared above them, all of them landing smoothly, with Negi holding Luna at least in his arms. The new robed figure landed softly, levitating slowly down to the floor. "I thought that you knew we were up there all along."

"And I'm surprised you managed to stay up there for so long, without barging down here to slam away those Giths." Aris said softly. "But let's focus on the subject at hand."

"This assignment." The dean said. "It's not the best one, morally speaking, but the benefits we would gain from this, is... well, substantial for our side."

"...Wait, principle." Yue interrupted him. "You're willing to sacrifice our friend for a benefit for when the Imperium comes at us?"

"...We didn't say that." Fate countered. "At most, sympathetically, I would understand your unwillingness to... go through with this."

"Understand?" Yue retorted. "She is our friend. Ours. You've been trying to kill her ever since she learned how to use the Diarum Ejeus, and now you claim to understand our side?" She accused the construct.

"...Now, now. There's no need to throw accusations at one another." Aris tried to calm them down. "And who the heck is your tall friend? Looks Xeno to me."

"...I can speak for myself, thank you." The Archmage retorted, sounding insulted by that. "My name is Ashracai, and I happen to be on your side, not politically speaking of course. Otherwise, I'm just another enemy. But I would advise not to attack. I only came here to talk."

"Did you now?" The Spartan said, somewhat unconvinced. "Well, let's hear what you have to say for your side at least."

"You mean, why my faction is going to invade what is practically an ass end of nowhere planet, or why those loyalists spoke of us, so scornfully?"

"Both, would do nicely." The commander answered that one. "Start with the scorn."

* * *

The attack wave of the summoned beings was horrifying for them. If the big clockworks wasn't there to hit them, then the small and nimble Valkyries were. As much as one would want to fight a mighty opponent, the heroes of the court found it terrifying to be up against an actual magic user of this calibre. Fate turned out to be a very skilled one at his line of power, and powerful to add. No one could reach him, as he always had one of the golems with him to stand as protection whilst the rest dished out damage.

No one was killed by the golems, just swatted away by them. As much as the damage would seem awful at first glance, no one actually died. And the only ones that did get hurt were those who tried to attack. The guards were the most obvious, trying to get at Fate, but they got too worked up with the golems and the Valkyries. But the maiden warriors were trying to get to the party's guest of honor, as well as her friends. The construct didn't do anything at first, preferring to stay in the background at first.

Hina and Bharash seemed to lead a good defense against the Valkyries at first, but they just kept coming at them, since Fate was using those little wood pieces to summon them. So far, they were up to seventeen of them, with about five of the golems as well. "They just keep coming!" Hina yelled as she was bashing the busty enemy women away from them. "I thought he is supposed to be the Gorgon. Is summoning the only thing he can do?"

"Not really." Nodoka answered her, since the bookworm was the only one there who knew what the white haired mage could do. "He doesn't do summoning normally. He prefers to use stone and water spells."

"I know what geomancy and hydromancy is. I'm just surprised that he doesn't go all out on us." The pink-haired girl responded. As another Valkyrie came in, that one was cut in two by Raydan and his own Katana. At least he'd know that charging blindly wouldn't work.

"Is that all you got, Averruncus?" He taunted the white haired one. "Why don't you come at us yourself? Do you mind if I defeat you, myself?"

Nodoka did an actual facepalm to herself as she realized that he had goaded him into coming at them himself. Boris noted that his charge had done that, and looked not happily at Raydan. "Are you serious?"

"Oh come on, Boris. Look at him!" Raydan told the Russian and Boris did indeed look at Averruncus. "He doesn't look so tough. What harm can he do if he just uses servants to attack us?"

"...Oh? You think me harmless, young man?" Fate inquired of the Monster Hunter as a group of knights finally broke past the golems and went straight for the white haired mage. A cloud of smoke occurred around him, and when it cleared, he was surrounded by some six statues of men ready to strike him. "How about you let Boris Ivanov do his own analysis of me, instead?"

Boris stood still, as did all of them, having seen Fate turn a group of strong knights into stone. Boris didn't say anything at first, but he studied the construct carefully. _What is this? I can't see anything from him, at all. He's like this fangless, clawless, blue creature and at the same time, he's something of a roaring dragon and a deadly Hippo at the- _"Wait..." He said quietly, but enough for Hina at least to hear him. _In him, I see... a beach. A perfect, beautiful beach. White sand, perfect blue sky, some sea gull yelping in the distance... Hold on... the water is...receding..._ And when he finished seeing that image, he couldn't help but to actually shudder at the thought. _I'm shaking? I'm actually shaking because of him!? I haven't felt like this, since... my first time seeing my Master in battle with another Master..._ It was at that moment, that the Russian realized that they were facing a very powerful master here. He had never faced against a master before, save for those back at Ryouzanpaku, but even then, it was never this... frightening. But a look back at a concerned looking Nodoka, looking back at him worried, he flinched and inhaled deeply through his nose. "...Orders are Absolute." With that, that foot that was trying to take a step back, slammed back down against the floor. "Boris Ivanov, the strongest disciple of the Fist of Destruction, Alexander Gaidar, former member of YOMI, will stand by and follow orders, even if I will die!" He roared at the white haired mage, who himself was taken aback at the Russian's determination.

"Now, that is impressive, Boris Ivanov-san." Fate addressed him, actually using honorifics there (1). "Alright then, I shall be your opponent."

The white haired one came first straight off against the Russian, who blocked that first punch, then he jumped over, but was grabbed by the foot and then thrown away from them, and then the Russian went straight at Fate himself, going for his joints. But Averruncus proved tough indeed as he countered with several vicious kicks against the Russian, using his feet as a platform. Of course, the Russian did get assistance from both Raydan and Bax, but all three didn't seem to put up a strong enough fight against the construct.

A clean roundhouse kick from Averruncus, going right on the three guys' throats, scraping them and all three were down. Still alive, but it hurt. "Huh, I did expect your new friends to be of better quality than this, Miyazaki." He addressed the bookworm. "Then again, you didn't really expect to face me... did you?" He asked of her.

Nodoka gathered enough of herself to stand up, away from Rufus' fried corpse, and retrieved her own pactio card, which she had stored somewhere on her person. "Now that was true." She responded as she summoned her artifact. "I never did expect you here, Averruncus-san." Her outfit that she had gained with the treasure hunters came out, replacing her dress as she had called forth her book.

"Hmm, I wonder myself how you've trained since Ostia." Fate said as his big golem companion stepped forward, as the white haired mage had grown tired of being guarded all the time. "I'll go easy on you at the moment."

_If I recall correctly, a summoned being's actions are done by thought of the user... _Nodoka thought as the big golem walked straight to attack just her. It was only a game for Fate now, but it was fair for now at least. But she didn't intend to show him fully what she could do. The golem tried to strike her with its great Katar blade, but it was relatively slow. All she needed to do was to step aside, and then she fired off three arrows right onto its head. Keeping it simple, she wasn't going to show off her skills to him.

"Not bad." Fate said before appearing right in front of her, forcing her to jump back from him, whilst his hand was glowing.

"Rev'keth, get the rest out of here!" The bookworm actually shouted to the Gith Knight, who obeyed what she said, lest they be petrified as well. He used specialized psychokinesis to get all of them away from where the two magi were, much to Hina's protests.

"**Πνοή Πέτρας!"** A voice was heard as a mighty cloud of smoke occurred where the two were.

"Nodoka!" Hina screamed as it happened, and as it was fading, to reveal only Fate looking back at them. "Grr, you fiend!" She accused him.

"Fiend?" Fate responded calmly. "I am not. I didn't kill her. I merely, made her go to sleep. That's all."

"Made her go to-"

"You're letting your rage get in your head." Fate said, stepping down the stairs. "It's not good for the intellect people. Petrifaction is merely one way of incapacitating your opponent without harming them. It only last for a few hours, and she's not harmed, whatsoever."

"What's your problem with us, anyway?" Symon demanded to know. "And what's with your arrogant behaviour, as well?"

"Arrogant? My, that's a bit rude." Fate responded to him. "I'm not arrogant, I'm simply... emotionless. I was created using Stoicism as a basis."

"Created?" Hina repeated as the smoke left the upper level clearly.

"He's a construct." Efromm, next to her spoke up. "Some sort of golem capable of high level magic. I've never heard of something like that-oh?" The blond Gith noticed something up on the higher level and then she couldn't help but grin to herself.

"What?" Fate caught that and wondered what she was smiling at and looked back. There was no statue of Nodoka right next to where Rufus lay fried alive, but above the row of thrones, stood a figure holding a satchel bag in her hand and a floating book next to her.

"I haven't just been letting others do all the training back at Mahora." Nodoka spoke with bravery rising up in her again. "I'm sorry at the moment for this, Tertium-san, but you **will** tell me how this satchel bag works."

"**!"** Fate exclaimed as she had drawn a parchment out of the bag.

**

* * *

**

A/N: Part Two will come up, shortly. This I promise you. But to ensure that my computer won't freeze up again, I'm cutting it short there.

1: It should be noted that Fate doesn't use honorifics except on people he knows personally. Some would call it arrogance. I call it culture difference. But he did use honorifics upon meeting Boris, because Boris happens to be that awesome in Kenichi. One look at him, and you instantly like him.


	35. Whew, danger's over, now, I think

**A/N: Part Two is here, now. God, I don't know how to do this. Um... here goes?**

* * *

"Is it true that you did betray this Vlaakith woman?" Aris asked of the Gith Archmage.

"You mean, if we truly did sway under another leader, killed fellow Giths to protect ourselves and leaving the Astral Planes and the dead god-isles in search of another future, then yes, we did." Ashracai answered him. "But we had good reason to do it."

"Good reason?" Luna asked of the elder alien.

"There was a reason why Vlaakith was also called among others as the 'Lich Queen'. She sustained her life by harvesting the souls of those who grew too much in personal power. She had grown highly paranoid and demanded that every 'outstanding' general would go see her in private. What happened to them was that they'd become soulless, zombies enslaved to her. Lel at that time, decided we had enough. Several of us clan leaders, of Githmir, Samasal, Zuriith, Druustya, to name a few, rallied under Lel's command and we left, with all our clans and their members."

"So you left because she was slowly killing all of you clan leaders?"

"To an extent. It wasn't just personal for us. She also wanted to become a god. To do that, she needed a lot of energy. Life energy. At first we didn't mind, but after we found that she had been killing us just to ascend herself, that's when it snapped."

"Fair enough, I assume." Aristodemus concluded. "I won't dive any further on that issue. Now, on to other matters."

"Ah yes, why my faction is going to invade this small blue planet." Ashracai pointed out. "We have little reason nowadays to attack inhabited systems, with full military and nuclear capabilities. Plus, a planet on which the inhabitants possess magic, makes it even tougher for us. Even if we did win, the losses would be enormous and costly."

"So it's not for strategic value or anything?" Konoka asked.

"In what way is a planet of strategic value? And I did say that this planet is on the Ass end of nowhere. If we wanted resources, then we could just go pillage the asteroid belts. They hold much more valuable minerals and holds more of it than just one planet."

"And why do I have a feeling that other galactic civilizations out there would feel not too pleased about you invading a planet which is filled with sapient life-forms, either?" Ukita just had to ask that one.

"That's true, as well. We already have a damaged reputation with several other federations, empires and hierarchies." Ashracai answered him. "No, we would need a solid reason to do this invasion. What it is, though, I've no idea so far."

"Well, this leads us nowhere." Aris said, scratching his chin. "But, regarding the request they gave us, anyway... It's not an unreasonable agreement they are suggesting."

"Eh?" Several of the girls, including Negi, exclaimed.

* * *

"...I see." Nodoka said, having looked at the parchment instead at Fate, as she could read minds without having to keep using the book. "So that is how the satchel works."

"...Now that, is why I labeled you as the most dangerous of Ala Alba, Miyazaki." Fate said, appearing next to her a moment later, only to find that she had thought ahead and jumped off from the railings to avoid his next attack.

"Omne flammans flamma purgatus, domine extinctionis et signum regenerationis, in mea manu ens inimicum edat" Nodoka read aloud from the parchment, directing her left hand where her new foci was, the diamond encrusted obsidian ring that Cireka had given her, by decree of the Institution. "Flagrantia Rubicans!" As she finished that, a powerful red blaze engulfed the white-haired mage on the railings. However, he had managed to cast up a barrier around himself.

"Highly impressive." Fate complimented her. "In just a few moments, you manage to learn how to handle a satchel bag which was created to hold an infinite number of spell scrolls, and that they are not in need of being only used by just magi, since they do not require an activation key."

"But the downside to this bag is that the scrolls are completely random, and I have no idea on what the next spell or element it will be." Nodoka replied to him. "What's more, when I cast a spell using one of these, the scroll will burn up due to its energy being drained rather than mine."

"Heh, that's awfully convenient." Rev'keth commented on that.

"Had you gained possession of such a bag from your stay in Mundus Magicus, you would have been even more dangerous than what you were back at Ostia." Fate said further, going down to where the thrones were. "No wonder Negi-kun thinks so highly of you."

"You must have been something back in your old team, Nodoka." Hina complimented her little sister. "I'd pick you any day if I had to choose."

"Hmph, well, that bag was never mine to begin with. You could say that I'm just borrowing it from another powerful user of items." Fate said, holding a few wooden pieces in his hand. "Aris-san is quite the...tool maker, if you call it like that. And he did throw in a little more... toys for me to play with." On that, he pulled out a few other things, notably a stuffed dog plushy. One with three heads and was painted black. "Say hello to Cerberus." He said as the little stuffed doggie turned into a giant hound with the three heads and each of them had a nasty looking collar with spikes.

"Um... what do we have that we can use against that?" Bax asked as he was rising up among the three guys that had fallen down.

"We might do it with a leash." Raydan responded. "That always puts hound monsters in place."

"I think we need something bigger than that for this hound. Or at least, something stronger." Hina commented on the big hound as it began its own charge against them, and it seemed hungry, very hungry.

It stopped right in front of them. "...You wanted something stronger, you say?" Efromm's voice was heard in front of the group, and the next thing they knew was that the blonde High Queen had lifted the beast high into the air and threw it directly at one of the golems. "You got something stronger." She said with pride in her voice. "Just leave the big summons to me, you go kick his sorry ass, kids."

"Whoa, whoa, the Queen is packing a punch?" Symon just had to ask. "Now I've seen everything."

"There is much in this world you have yet to see, young man. Now do your part of this fight!" Efromm charged directly at the big golems and the big three headed dog, dressed in the equivalent of a Githyanki Fanservice dress and nothing but her hands and feet willing to cause some damage. Next thing they knew, there were bits of clockwork just flying around.

"...Something tells me that she was just itching to stretch herself, with all the work she's doing..." Hina commented on the blonde woman, her left eye twitching slightly at the disturbing sight. The High Queen certainly put her own knights to shame with that performance.

_It certainly would help me a great deal that that Queen isn't going to help her in the long run... _Fate thought to himself. _But also... if she did, then things might be a lot easier than I would normally have assumed..._ But he had a job to do, right now. "Are you just going to ignore me, watching her?" He asked loudly to remind the little kids about what they were facing.

"Heh, this would be a lot easier if we had our gear." Bax noted, as he hadn't brought his Alchemy bottles with him to the party, since there was no original need for them. "We shouldn't have left them back at Efromm's palace."

"That's it." Rev'keth said to himself. "Lord Merzim! You're a teleporter, right?" He called to the Githyanki lord of Huayuel, who had just managed to kick away one of the Valkyries.

"I am." The lord answered him.

"We need you to help us retrieve our heavy equipment." Rev'keth informed as Merzim managed to run up to them. "You, me and Bax go fetch our heavy gear, then we'll come back here, understand?" The Knight asked the lord, who nodded to the question. "Kids, we'll be leaving for a while. Boris, Hina, I leave you to protect Miyazaki until we're back." With that, the two Giths and Hobgoblin were gone in a flash of light and smoke.

"Great. How do we fend off a high level mage with specialization in petrifaction?" Hina asked as their group readied for what would be the first of many a dangerous battle for themselves.

"Hell if I know." Raydan answered his Sensei, having brought just his Katana along. "But let's just see what we can do initially and just go from there."

"Good as any, I guess. Miyazaki-san, stay back here." Boris moved in front of the bookworm, to position himself between her and Fate.

"Done preparing, then?" Fate asked them as he took a step down the stairs. "Here I come, then." In an instant, Fate had vanished first from their point of view, to end up above Boris, to give him a kick down toward the floor, then he appeared where Raydan was and threw him up against the roof instead. Hina was faster one when the white-haired mage went against her, as she was swinging Masamune in controlled and swift attacks against him. Only he was experienced against weapons before, so he slid in beneath her, to give her upwards into the air. Then Nodoka was next to be attacked.

"Oh no, you don't!" Symon interrupted, baring a pair of daggers he had brought with him, at least. At least he was fast enough to deflect Fate's attacks. Then he went on the offensive, thrusting past the white-haired mage's arms, trying to stab the golem with the daggers. "You're gonna have to go through me first."

"This is fast, much quicker than what I originally assumed of you." Fate responded calmly, dodging the daggers with demonic speed, but there were a few ones that nearly got him. "Mind telling me your name, at least?"

"The name's Symon Darion, son of Gaelan, also known as the Living Death." The ranger responded, getting into a deadlock with the magus. "If you want to get to Lady Nodoka, you'll have to get me out of the way first."

"...Is that so?" Fate said, with the same monotone voice he had, before he pushed the seemingly older one back. "Very well. I don't normally kill humans, but you seem to leave me no choice." With that, the ground shattered between the two, and a large spear of stone emerged...

… to impale Symon on it through his **stomach**...

"Symon-san!" Nodoka cried as the ranger coughed out blood through the mouth, but she barely had time to react or try to fire off a spell before Fate appeared right in front of her and grabbed her face with his right hand, lifting her upward as Hina and Raydan fell down again to the hard floor.

"...This time, at least, it's not personal." Fate said as his hand was starting to glow.

* * *

"What is going down there!" The Hobgoblin exclaimed as explosions occurred down below, but he could not react any further before he felt an arm around his throat.

"I gotta thank someone for this." Jashol said before knocking the guard out and then stealing the keys to his cell. _They haven't learned that when having me locked in, they should have the keys around the neck of someone not here, rather than on the guard by my cell... Their loss, my gain, I suppose..._ With that, Jashol got out of his cell, stealing the Hobgoblin's steel shortsword, and then running off to the window he was by earlier.

"Oh, it's complete carnage down there." He said, seeing the big golems and the armored women fighting the guards and the fleeing guests, most of which were unarmed. "Hang on, where's the-?" He froze, seeing through a great round window a white-haired boy, holding the Witch by one hand. "Oh, crap, I better head down there."

Remembering the pole right down below the window, he pulled out his rope and quickly tied a noose, and threw it down to try and get the pole through the noose. He has done this before, as he managed the first time. Tightening its grip on the pole, he stepped on to the railing of the window, and then made a brief calculation of how much rope he needed.

Then he jumped out, swinging himself in a manner to propel into the window...

"You can't do this." Yue said, trying to get some sense into the Spartan.

"I certainly can." Aris responded to the philosopher. "I don't want to do it, but I must, if we want a chance against them."

"Sacrificing our friend isn't going to be the best choice." Negi argued.

"I don't like it either, but what choice do we have? We'd be walking into a fight, blind, deaf and dumb if we didn't take up this offer." Aris countered. "I don't want the Imperium to walk over us with ease."

_Sound argument for a Commander, there..._ Ashracai thought to himself, preferring to stay out of the conversation.

"Isn't Nodoka-san the very reason we got started preparing for war?" Negi countered the Spartan. "And you said, that you would help us get her back, too."

_Now there was another..._

"Times change, Negi-kun." Fate joined in on this. "Miyazaki may have been the start of all this, but that doesn't mean she has to be still alive at the end of this."

"You can talk of it as if it's nothing, but I won't leave this alone." Negi said, almost angry now. "Nodoka-san is my student, do you really think that I would just let you do this?"

"Negi, I'm not really in the best position to choose the option where we all work together to bring her back." Aristodemus countered. "You are her teacher, yes, but this is a war we're being dragged into. So I make the final call here."

"I'm not just going to let you send a team, to kill one of my students!" Negi said, now sounding furious. "Why should we even listen to these Loyalists to begin with!"

"It's just one life, Negi." Aris argued. "It's less important to save than millions of others."

_**SNAP!**_

_The window shattered as the Spartan was slammed into it and then fell down to the ground..._

* * *

The window shattered as a fast impact happened upon it, canceling Fate's concentration for once. "Who-" The white-haired mage could barely react before someone branded a steel blade right at his face. Letting Miyazaki go, he moved backwards to see this new arrival. A man in his twenties, tall with grey eyes and dark green shoulder length hair, dressed in a dark green long coat, standing between himself and the mind reader girl, holding a short steel blade, straight and flat it is. "Now this is someone I did not anticipate. You are?"

"Name's Jashol. And I've been around magi long enough to know how to deal with them." Jashol replied coldly, yet somewhat craving for a fight.

"Oh? It doesn't bother you that I seem... human?" Fate responded to him. "I'm not like the other magi you heard of."

"So? You're an opponent, just like the rest, to me. I don't walk out of a fight I just walked into." Jashol countered, before looking at the girl behind him. _Gotta be careful here... don't want him to get at her..._

"Even so, you are facing a rather powerful one, capable of taking out armies on his own... What do you think you can do?" Fate asked of the new arrival, and Jashol's response was a swift thrust with his blade against him, making the Gorgon go backwards from the attack. "Well, there was that."

"You should learn to mind your surroundings." Jashol replied as Fate actually slipped on a rock behind his foot and fell backwards with the taller fellow going in to set the sword at Fate's throat.

"Really. I should say the same to you." Fate countered, leaving Jashol bewildered of what he said. "You left the girl unguarded."

"Ahh!" Nodoka cried out as she was grabbed from behind by one of the big golems, the one that managed to escape the blonde High Queen's ferocious attacks. It had taken her completely, engulfing her body almost fully except for her right arm. "Nngh!" She squealed as the golem began to crush her.

"Oh, damnit!" Jashol broke off from the white-haired mage to try and attack the golem, but a strong hose of water sent him away flying some other way from the golem.

"Not really my opinion of thrash, Miyazaki, but you could have chosen better allies for yourself. I had hoped for so much more." Fate, rising up from his lying position, told the bookworm as the golem kept squeezing her.

"Armo!" Nodoka cried out, much to Fate's confusion now. "Mea Arme!" With that, Nodoka's own sword, given to her by that smith back on Earth, emerged from her own hand. She took the moment instantly to stab the golem's arm that was holding her and then wrenched it so that the hand came loose from the golem and she fell to the floor engulfed in it, but she came loose when it hit the granite floor.

"Oh? A magic blade?" Fate inquired. "That I didn't expect at all."

"There seems to be a lot of things you won't expect while here, Fate." Hina's voice said from behind him, taking him by surprise and then cutting his apparent form in two. Only it got herself splashed with water.

"...Hmm, I underestimated the situation yet again." Fate said as he reemerged some distance away from them. "Still, it shouldn't be too much of a-" He didn't get to finish that due to the bombs that suddenly appeared around him and the fuse was about to go off. They did.

"Sorry we're late as we are!" Rev'keth said as he, Bax and Merzim came back to them, holding all of their prepared stuff, plus a giant sword, greater than a few blades Nodoka's seen. The first reference that came to mind was Asuna's great sword, but then it came to something bigger. It then reminded her of a few Indian greatswords that the Indians would use while riding an elephant. Highly impractical, but the size of the thing was enough to convince her. "Efromm, your Majesty, we brought your sword as well!" The Gith Knight reported to her as he barely managed to throw the big blade to her.

"About damned time!" The blonde shouted back as she took by just one hand. "Bashing the heads in on this puppy with my hands was starting to get annoying! And I've made myself pretty for this evening, too!" That, coming from a hot blonde woman in a nymph-like dress and bloodied hands, surrounded by spare parts of golem, was a bit stretchy, it would seem.

"Just how many of you are there to oppose me, really?" Fate asked of them as he had shielded himself yet again from their attacks. "This is getting ridiculous on how powerful you Githyanki seem to be..."

"You did pick the wrong time to strike, construct." Symon's voice took him off guard as the ranger lashed out with his own longswords against the white-haired mage, making Fate block them with a big stone blade that he made in an instant.

"Symon-san!" Nodoka exclaimed, surprised to see their ranger seemingly unharmed, despite having been impaled on stone just moments before.

"Only turn your back to a corpse." Symon informed Fate, who went backward from his blades, that was rather swift for a natural human, as well.

"Thank you for the advice, there, young man." Fate responded, standing a bit far away from the gathering group of fighters and psykers, the proper word would be at the moment to describe the Githyanki that used psionic powers. "...I never thought that it would actually come to this, but you humans and xenos leave me little choice."

"Oh, decided to turn tail and run now, did we?" Jashol smirked at the white-haired mage.

"No, I believe I actually have to use incantations here." Fate replied, narrowing his eyes for once before moving his arms in a special pattern. **"Visju Tal Li Shutal Vangèit!"**

"That can't be good." Bax noted, doubt pouring all over his face.

"**Basiliske galeote meta kokto podon kai kakoin ommatoin to phos emei cheiri kathias toi kakoi dergmati toxeusato." **Fate spoke as his hand glowed while pointing at the new team Nodoka had gathered to herself.

"Permissum ut lux lucis sedeo in meus manus manus , quod surculus continuo prosterno obtutus!" Nodoka suddenly chanted, using another parchment picked out of the satchel bag.

"Oh?" Fate inquired.

"**Sekika no Jagan!"** Both spellcasters shouted as the same spell, though with different languages of the same incantation, fired and slammed into each other, becoming into some form of Beam war between the two. "Interesting. With the spells random, I did not expect that there would be a Latin version of the Evil Eye of Petrifaction in that bag..."

"Ngnh...!" Nodoka groaned as her own beam was getting weaker. Naturally, Ancient Greek was more highly valued than Latin, so it was stronger than Latin in terms of power.

"A tactical error, perhaps? Don't worry, it's not death that'll happen, Miyazaki..." Fate said as he pushed more power into his beam, but then that lightning bolt happened out of the blue from the side, slamming him away.

"He's down! Now's our chance!" Rev'keth yelled as the bookworm fell on her knees from the exhaustion of using that last spell.

"Get him. Get him good this time." Nodoka instructed them and all of them charged against the white-haired mage. She herself turned to take a look at where the lightning bolt came from, and got a genuine surprise at who it was.

"You're going down now, Averruncus!" Hina screamed at him, swinging Masamune with such speed that Fate almost got hit by her. She was quickly followed up by Boris, using his own massive body to try and pin him down, only Fate used his water form to get loose. Then Symon and Bax came up, the Hobgoblin using some form of electric grenade thingamajig on the construct, while Symon tried to hit him with his swords. Raydan and Rev'keth were rather swift themselves, the human using a spear now instead of his Katana weapon and Rev'keth making fast, and accurate strikes with his fists and kicks. Due to her sword risking hitting all the rest, Efromm followed the Knight's example.

_Huh? What's that?_ Symon noted that all around them were small candle lights, going brightly despite someone trampling on it by accident. _Candle lights that doesn't go out... if I recall correctly, that would be the- Nooh!_ His face went hysterical as he realized what was going to happen. "Could someone at least get us out of here first!" He then screamed at the guards and fighting lords battling the Valkyries, whilst his group faced off against Averruncus.

To his response, all fighters save Fate vanished in a flash of light, leaving the white-haired one bewildered as to where they went, and an instant later, a massive explosion happened where he stood. A searing white flame embraced the very center of the court hall, making everything stop at their actions and look at the hot flames and smoke rising. The explosion was definitely heard across all of Zuriith-ma. Moments later, the whole group reemerged again by Nodoka's side.

"What? What just happened?" Hina asked, searing the smoke and a question mark appeared above her head.

"What happened is that someone came to your aid." An old man's voice spoke up and the rest of them found old Rufus, in a somewhat charred robe, but he was definitely still alive, though a bit damaged.

"Rufus-sama?" Hina exclaimed seeing the old human king able to walk normally down to them, along with Bharash, who had stayed by the king's side all along the battle. "I thought that lightning bolt killed you."

"I admit that it would take more than some lightning to eliminate me." Rufus chuckled. "But that young man was quite something, himself. That he dared to assault us here is not something your ordinary magus would do."

"...Don't speak of him as if he's dead, please." Nodoka said, gaining their attention and confusion. "It would take a lot more to get rid of you completely, isn't that so, Averruncus-san?"

The smoke cleared away, to reveal Fate Averruncus floating in mid-air above the floor, covered in shields and glowing runes about him. "...I don't know whether to count myself lucky or skilled on this particular case."

"He survived!" Raydan shouted. "What does it take to get rid of you?"

"Something you don't seem to have at the moment." Fate replied to him as the small wooden pieces fell to the floor. "This time at least I'm not going to hold-" He stopped to notice smoke from beneath him and he looked down to discover that the solid Granite floor.... had _melted._ "Ah, now the odds aren't in my favor."

"It took you that long to realize you were losing?" Raydan asked of him.

"I'm not talking outnumbered, so much as outpowered." Fate replied to the young monster hunter. "This is why I took Rufus-sama out from the start, because I knew he would be able to take me out instantly, without me a chance to show the people of high courts who I really was."

"So you are the Gorgon." Rufus stated. "Your fight with Nodoka is something I shouldn't interfere with, but you did make an all-out assault on us, therefore I made the counter offensive." The High King took a deep breath and exhaled long before speaking up again. "I must however, ask you to leave now. This is the only chance you'll get."

"Don't worry. I'll be leaving shortly." Fate replied courteously and even bowed. "But first... I'll be taking back that satchel bag." Without them even getting a chance to reply or argue about it, he appeared right in front of the bookworm, taking the bag gently from her and strapping it onto his own shoulder over the beige coat he wore. "...every time I try, I somehow fail to eliminate you, Miyazaki. You might find comfort in that." He told her softly before doing a shundou again to the pool of magma in the center of the hall. "Bye bye." Upon saying that, the magma hauled upwards and slammed down on the white-haired mage, engulfing him and then retreating back to where it rested.

"Magma being used as a portal gate?" Efromm inquired, seeing all that. "That was something new." Not bothering to listen, Rufus made a few gestures and the magma flattened out and returning to the same smooth granite floor it used to be before the explosion. The Valkyries disappeared into smoke as well, as did the clockwork golems and Cerberus. The petrified guards returned to normal as well, falling to the floor exhausted as well.

"Now we know for certain. The prophecy is real. The Gorgon has revealed himself, and the Witch's own power is genuine." Rufus spoke up to the remaining guests and the guards who stood and fought there. "I feel like it is my obligation to aid lady Nodoka now, ensuring that she'll succeed. Efromm, I ask you: Will you aid as well, or stand aside to watch as a spectator?"

"Are you kidding, Rufus? I intend to fight. I want to aid the Witch of Man as well. Besides, I can't wait to see Ifrith's face when he learns that the rumors of a magic using human was not just some cooked up story." The blonde replied to the king's question. "It has been some time since all of Druustya went to war. I dread the number of casualties, but for the sake of many wishing for change from the tyrant that is Ifrith, I'm prepared to face such numbers."

"Well then, let it be known that the Great Kingdoms of Zuriith and Druustya are allied now with the Witch and therefore at war with Samasal as long as it is under the rule of High King Ifrith." Rufus spoke, much to the guests' applause and the guards' cheering. Nodoka didn't feel so pleased about this, as did Hina. "I'll have to alert the Emperor about this sanctioned war and also give Bharash a strike force to make a first move on Samasal."

"Er, hold on a moment." Nodoka spoke up. "If you must go to war over this, please don't attack any city or kingdom that wishes to stay out of the fighting. I do not wish for innocent blood to be spilled in this."

"Your request is accepted." Efromm replied to her. "We shall also give them the opportunity to side with us if they wish to."

"Now then... I suggest that just for the night, you'll be staying here in Zuriith-ma. I'll have some rooms prepared for you." Rufus added as well. Since the royalty in this case knew what they were doing, the party agreed to the terms. Jashol however was sent back to his prison cell in an instant.

* * *

Later that night, in the castle, the need for lavatories kicked in. It had been a long day for them all, going to a party, getting attacked and then having trouble fending off one of the toughest magic users they've ever encountered.

Of all the people she had expected, Nodoka never believed that she would be up against Fate Averruncus, the same mage that Negi-sensei had trouble defeating. Now she was going to do it, somehow and she knew that she didn't have hoop in hell in beating him. Even with everyone working together, what chance did they stand against him? And let's not get in to the divinely descended swordwielder, either...

The bookworm had a _whole _lot of crap going on around her now. What was next, an army of darkness, bent on exterminating all living things and using her as a vessel for their dark demigod? Or maybe some eldritch abominations willing to have her brains for dinner? _God, why do I feel like either or both of those are going to happen to me?_

After having used the lavatories here, and heading back to her room, she passed an open door she didn't notice before. Taking a peek inside, she saw a large number of dusty old tomes, kept fresh still by the magicians here. Wall to wall bookshelves, going all the way up to the roof covered most of it, along with pedestals for books and tables for larger communities of magi studying in this great hall. High King Rufus certainly spends a lot of time working on the interior of the castle, making it bigger than what it actually looks like in some areas. Most notably was at the far end of the library, was a shrine. The shrine didn't have much for idols, it just had a picture of a hand pointing with the index finger to the sky on a oval light blue background. The image was flanked by a pair of candles and underneath was a small amount of text, drawing her interest into reading it:

"_Reason is the best way to approach magic, and magic can be examined and reduced to its component parts through study and meditation. Maintain calm and use caution in your spellcasting and magic use to avoid making mistakes that even magic cannot undo. Use the art wisely, and always be mindful of when it is best not to use magic. Teach the wielding of magic and dispense learning throughout Tu'narath that the use and knowledge of magic may spread. Live and teach the idea that with magical power comes grave responsibility. Learn every new spell you discover and make a copy for the temple library. Do not hoard your knowledge, and encourage creativity in magic in all ways and at all times."_

"Lord Azuth's sacred answer to magic." Rufus' voice startled her from behind, making her look in the way of the old king. Rufus had only changed into a light robe, and bore his staff and crown in the library as well. "We humans used to have magic a long time ago. We shared the existence with the other races here, using our heads together to help build a future together." He began a long tale as he approached the shrine and stood beside her. "But then, war occurred, and we lost, severely. All of our magi were killed and the surviving families of those magi swore in order to survive, to never use magic again, as the Emperor had demanded it of us."

"That sounds horrible." Nodoka lamented.

"What choice did we have? We were about to nearly get exterminated, and we were heavily outnumbered by the Gith. We did what every man would want to do. To live." Rufus explained to her. "Since then, we have lost most of our ways. I would say it would be for the better, lest the huge World War would repeat itself."

"Hang on a minute here..." Nodoka spoke up a little, and they were alone in the library so she could speak up. "You talk of this as if you remember it. As if you were there." She said, practically accusing him on the spot. Rufus didn't say anything, so she continued. "Exactly how long ago was this war that we lost?"

"It ended about two-thousand years ago." The King answered her.

"Then how come that you remember, or that you even are a magic user as well?" Nodoka inquired. "And don't even think about saying you read a book on it. If humans lost the war and gave up magic to survive, then the other races must have taken steps to ensure that we wouldn't learn magic at all, so that the war would start over again."

Rufus did seem to get nervous about how this went, so before the bookworm continued, he began talking. "... I was there, during the war. At least at the end of it." He told her, making her stop. "...I'm not... entirely human, myself, Lady Nodoka. Heh, you could say that I lack one requirement for it." He tried to lighten the mood there. Little effect, there. "Okay. Close your eyes, please." He asked her to, and she did so, gently. "No peeking." She shut them tight. "...Now, you may open them."

"What's this abo-Ah!" She gasped when she saw him as he was in reality. He was the same height as before, but he was certainly not of the normal party. He was gaunt and skeletal, with withered flesh stretched tight across visible bones. He still had some of his gray and wizened hair, but his great beard was missing, and the hair was just simply hanging free. His face was very much like that of a skeleton itself, save for the soft blue glow that emanated from within the skull, the brightest in his eye sockets. He still had his clothing on.

"First time, seeing a properly undead person?" He asked of her, and she gained enough to actually shake her head. "Oh, then I suppose that this was the first time you ever seen one that looks... like this." Now she nodded. "I'm no longer a human as I said, earlier. I'm a **Lich**, an undead magic user."

"You did this to yourself to avoid complete destruction of the human magi?" Nodoka asked him, stepping away from him.

"That, and I was spared by the Emperors' wrath, since I didn't take part of the fighting at the end of the War." Rufus answered her. "I was spared on the condition that I didn't teach anyone the ancient Art. So I made myself this, to ensure that magic wasn't entirely gone from us. And to remind the Giths that they should watch out when we go to war." He chuckled on that last one, as he returned to his human form. "Now, off to bed with you. You have a hard time ahead of you and I doubt you'll have time yawning all the way through it."

Nodoka smiled slightly at him and bowed at him. "Good night then, Rufus-sama." With that, she left the library back to her room.

"I know you're there, Githyanki." Rufus said once he was alone, or so it seemed. "Come out where I can see you."

"...So, what do you think?" Fashtar asked as he stepped out of the shadows to the left of the Shrine. "You'll have to admit that I made a good choice."

"Spirit-wise, at least. I had hoped for better material, but she does have the potential, if not the talent." Rufus informed the Githyanki.

"She doesn't have any natural talent for magic, but you're right, there is potential." Fashtar responded to the old undead man. "But not every mage is born with magic."

"True, but it will take time for her powers to grow to the expectations of what the other High Monarchs would expect of her. Efromm is willing to stand by her side, and that is enough for them to not take advantage of the civil war to invade Samasal." Rufus continued. "But it should take time before either Great Kingdom can go to war. For the moment, Nodoka is alone."

"So it would seem, old man." Fashtar said, crossing his arms. "Bharash and his army need time to muster, but surely you can think of someone else who can go with her for the moment?"

"...You know..." Rufus said, starting to smile to himself. "...I think I know just the man."

* * *

If you do not succeed in keeping someone locked behind bars the first time, you certainly succeed the second time. The imprisoned Jashol had found that High King Rufus had not only sent him back to his old cell in the tower, but also at the same time, taken the Hobgoblin guard out of the cell, locked the door and set the key down in the stairway, way out of reach for Jashol's spear to get it.

The spearman felt that he could only lie down in his cell on the wooden shelf that was made as a bed for him, and wait for the magocratic authorities to come and pick him up from the castle. "So much for freedom..." He sighed, awaiting his doom.

"In here, your Majesties." The Hobgoblin's voice cut in as three separate kinds of footsteps went up the stairs to his cell, keys jingling as well. It was the two High Monarchs from before, the human High King Rufus and Efromm the Golden-Haired from Druustya. The Hobgoblin unlocked the cell door to allow the two monarchs in.

"High King Rufus, and High Queen Efromm." Jashol addressed them as they approached him. "To what honor do I owe this visit to a lowly prisoner?"

"Do spare us the sarcasm, Jashol, son of Jashal." Rufus said calmly. "It'll save us time, at least."

"Oh? This should be good. Have you come to examine my condition yourself, your Majesty? Or is it something else?"

"Something else." Rufus responded. "We have a job for you. One that will give you protection from the magocracies."

"Basically, you're extorting me." Jashol said, not bothering to look at their faces, before being yanked up by Efromm.

"You could say that, human." Efromm snarled at him. "Five years of being hunted by the magi has led you to take the path of a mercenary soldier and spy for various nations, thanks to that curse you received some time ago. On occasion, you've spent some time as a bodyguard as well, providing some damn good protection for lords, merchants and princes who needed someone of particular quality. So what we want you to do is to employ your skills as a bodyguard once again."

"Only this time, your charge will be Nodoka, the Witch of Man." Rufus said, as the blonde Githyanki put the human down. "You will make sure that she stays alive, and that she succeeds in bringing down Ifrith."

"Huh. Should have seen this coming." Jashol said, cracking his neck there. "But what's in it for me if I do this?"

"Let's put it this way: You do this for us and you won't be sent to Zuriith's magocracy to be vivisected in order to find out what it is that makes you so attracted by them."

"That's good enough as a starting fee, if there ever was one." Jashol responded, being put down by the blonde Queen to view the old man eye-by-eye. "Very well, I'll take you up on this. However, I must however admit that blackmailing won't be enough for me to just keep her alive."

"Why you little-" Efromm started, getting angry at this particular human, but Rufus calmed her.

"Alright. Let me tell you this first: A High Monarch doesn't go back on his word, ever, whoever they are. And I will give you my word that I will personally cure you of your condition once the Civil war with Ifrith is over. How does that sound to you?"

Jashol took his time calibrating this offer in his own head for some time.

* * *

A couple of days later, by the docks in Wee Jas, the whole party considering of Nodoka, Hina, Boris, Rev'keth, Raydan, Bax and Symon, was a bit surprised at seeing a new addition to their team of heroes leading a minor army. Jashol had been assigned to them by royal edict, from two separate realms, for that matter.

"...So, by decree of High King Rufus, I'll accompanying you on this quest. If we work properly, you'll find me a considerate employee and colleague. Just be wary of my tendency for battle when it happens and we should get along fine." Jashol reported as he stood before them, wearing his big coat, along with his bronze sword underneath it, and a big backpack on the back, complete with a bedroll, a couple of hanging pieces of wood doused in something smelly, and who knew what was in the backpack itself.

"Wait, we're going to take you along?" Hina asked. "I don't feel like I'm going to like this."

"I know, but it is what Rufus commanded, so we got no choice but to do as he said." Jashol added. "And don't worry, I will quit the sarcasm eventually, just bear with me until then."

"Fine, fine." Rev'keth said, being the eldest of the bunch. "But no heroics from you either, we don't want a repeat of what happened at Zuriith-ma."

"Understood." The newbie said, even saluting the Gith Knight. "Shall we get started? The ship is almost about to leave."

"All aboard to Samasal!" The first mate of the ship called to everyone hurrying to catch the boat. "We're letting go of the aft line already! Hurry up, folks!"

"Come on!" Raydan called, rushing for the ship first, followed by the rest, up the plank aboard the ship.

"Oh, Hannahanna's sacred special underwear, you guys again." The Githyanki captain greeted them, after having talked with a tall dark figure in a cloak. "I should have expected to see you guys again back to Samasal, but not with Jashol in tow. What did you do to get stuck with him?"

"Get attacked by the Gorgon, does that qualify?" Symon retorted back at him. "Got the scarring to prove it if you want to see."

"Er, that won't be necessary." The captain responded. "...Look, all I want now is no trouble from you people. All I want to make a good life being captain aboard this ship and that's all. I don't want to end up serving you guys all the time. Can we agree to that?"

"Don't worry, captain." Nodoka took this one. "As much as we appreciate you helping us, even though just twice, we have no intention of bringing you into this civil war, if it could be called that at this stage."

"Whew, thank Gith for that." The captain said. "And there's no need for you people to guard our ship this time. Another mage is doing that already. Took all the shifts by himself. He insisted that he did. So who am I to stop him? Anyway, get below deck. I don't like the sight of those clouds we're heading for."

Up on the bow of the ship, the dark cloaked figure was watching the whole party get underneath by going into the main cabin which led to a specially crafted mini dimension to house everyone on the ship. He had his own room there, but he preferred to be out on deck instead. He took particular notice of the purple haired girl, the one in a cloak and escorted everywhere by the big muscled man. He could try to take her down, but he would have to face the whole party whilst doing so. Not a chance he would want to take. "...Dymanis back to the GPS. Miyazaki is on board the ship. We're bound for Samasal now."

"_Good."_ Fate's telepathic voice said in Dymanis' head. _"Once you are there, head directly for the magi community. Do not engage with Miyazaki. You are to simply protect the ship and then head straight for the magi."_

"...Understood."

* * *

"Well...that one I did not expect to see." Ashracai said, bothering to look out the shattered window to see the Spartan lying there on the hard concrete. "At least not so early into the discussion."

"It was just too much there." Negi said in his own defense. "Like I was just going to let him do as he pleased."

"Pleased?" Fate echoed the word. "You believe that he actually _wants_ to eliminate Miyazaki? It isn't as simple as it seems."

"But to me, it seemed like he was going to authorize an execution." Negi countered. "And how can I stand idly by while the one being sent to the block was a very close friend of mine whom I vowed personally to protect?"

"But did you have to knock Aris-sensei's lights out to get your point clear?" Kenichi asked as he and Luna were looking out the window as well, whilst the dean sat in his chair the whole time, somewhat surprised himself that Negi went and did so.

"Wouldn't you have done the same if it was one of _your _personal friends, Kenichi-san?"

"That's a rather poor argument, Negi-kun." Konoka said, bringing out that fact. "But... I feel that you are somewhat right. I know I would do the same for Set-chan if I had the ability."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on." Ukita stopped everyone talking and arguing, in order to catch up with everybody else. "So, the reason you kids joined in on this...war effort is to to find a way to rescue this Miyazaki-san?"

"We showed you a picture of her, didn't we?" Negi asked the Judo user and momentarily produced the Pactio card he had with the bookworm. "That's whom I want to save, from the start of all this. If I was to just let things go by and have her get killed, then how can I even stay part of the war effort?"

"...Now there was a sound argument if there ever was one for you to stay part of all this." Ashracai said, looking back at the young boy. "But somehow, I think there is more to it than just that you want her saved that you punched out your commanding officer."

"Huh?" Negi could only respond in curiousity.

"_**Who is that alien to decide what is best for us? We should teach him a lesson..."**_ A dark sinister voice with lethality in its tone spoke inside his head, making him flinch.

"...You can say that again, good mage." Aristodemus' voice cut in, as the Spartan had come up again, through the window and sitting on the railing, all apparently bruised up and a broken nose. "Kenichi-kun, your Karate teacher is Sakaki, right?" He asked the disciple, who nodded since he was speechless at seeing the old man just sitting there. "He tends to say that while words can hide a man's intentions, it's his fists that always reveal the truth. When Negi punched me, there was a lot more anger against me than just that I was thinking of sending some execution squad to kill Miyazaki. Otherwise, my nose wouldn't have been broken so," He stopped to crack the nose back into shape. "...easily."

"Really? What would most of that be?"

"A few things that would border on your point of view as; terrible actions against your family, this, and plotting to upset the 'natural' order of Mundus Magicus." Aris pointed out as a few examples. "I'll admit that I'm doing these things for the greater good. It has always fallen to the sacrifice of few in order to save the lives of many."

"Well, that's not going to happen in this case. Here, the life we're talking about here helped us find a way to save the Magic World in the first place." Negi countered, sounding angry now. "If it hadn't been for her to begin with, we wouldn't have found a way to sustain the Magic World's energy."

"To keep the illusion up for another decade, or so." Aris retorted. "Yes, we should feel indebted to you and her, Negi, but this is reality now. The Real world. War is hell and it never changes. Hence why I quit it so long ago."

"If that was the case, then why did you take the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Magic World in the first place?"

"What, you think I want some jerkass, lousy fancy-pants pen-pusher to have the job? Someone in the Senate, the one group of politicians I wouldn't put my trust in, even if Both worlds were in danger and they proposed to save mankind? Martialus is old as he is, and Theo doesn't have the personal experience of leading millions. Godel is an asshole on his own, and the only one who had any form of guts in the Senate was Frollo, and you saw what happened to him twenty years ago. **No**. I took the job to prevent that we wouldn't fall or be caught with our trousers down. That is why I'm in command here, Negi."

"...Even so, you do realize our loyalty to you is only built on trust? You can't order us around as you please, which is why you wanted sub-commanders, those who put their trust in that you can accomplish this. In addition, the sub-commanders are put in charge of a particular area or unit to lead on their own deprived of orders from you in order to ensure Earth's protection." Negi added to make the topic more clear.

"...If you say that you are cutting yourself and 3-A away from this chain, then fine. That only means I can authorize the mission without your permission. So if you want to... Oh, so that's how this is going to be..." Aris said, realizing the truth.

"That's one way of putting it. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to grasp my perspective so fast." Negi said, crossing his arms, making the girls go back in shock of what was going to come.

"Dean?" Aris asked the principal.

"...Well, I suppose. Negi-kun has been rather stubborn whenever it comes down to his personal students. And he won't take his mind off it otherwise."

"Very well, then. Castle Leben Schult, young man." Aris instructed the young magi in front of him. "...We've got a lot to talk about..."

**

* * *

**

A/N: And... that's part 2. Need to put a lot of links together now. And I've been putting up this one for too long, I guess. My fingers are never going to forgive me...

**No more explanations now. I run a library in the Negima forums; Negima RPG: To be or not to be. Check Library of Magic Lore: I got a few hypothesizes there plus a few tips. And I also invite anyone willing to share information regarding magic and all that (I'm tired at the moment) to go there and post what they think or know. Just no arguments and I don't want to hear about some magic metal of sorts. Leave that to me in this fic and we'll be fine. **

**Now... fasten your seat-belts, cleanse your bottoms, it's gonna be a bumpy ride in the next chapter! **


	36. Negi vs the Spartan

**A/N: By the time you read this, I'm way past my 20th birthday. I hope my fingers will aid me in the future, after this chapter. Now, Onwards! May the constitution of the upper limbs' distinctive mini-arms surpass that of this probably very long chapter! Gods watch over us all, and I don't give a **** about which God I'm invoking, just whoever bothers to listen! **

A massive shock blast slammed away a large amount of snow, due to the impact blow between the two combatants. The smaller of the two spinned around on the momentum of his opponent, sliding alongside the out-stretched arm, to try an elbow attack on the larger one's temple. The impact slammed his opponent away, yet failed to knock him out fully. The slightly taller of the two got his footing back and charged with a shundou right at the smaller, capturing them both in a collision of blows against one another, blocking each other and not gaining a hit on the opposition. The smaller saw a hole in the attack barrage and used that to jump over the taller one, and then going for a knee strike right to the back of the head. That didn't work. His opponent saw through the attack and simply knelt down to have the smaller miss completely, and then using the momentum of his legs bent, to use the legs as a spring and slam himself into his small opponent and then force him down to the snow covered rock ground and then bombard him with punches whilst he was lying down.

Negi wouldn't have that, and he slided away, before his opposition could start the barrage, and used his initiative to fire a Lightning arrow combined out of three right into the commander's face. Not that it would stun him for long, but it did the young magi time to prepare a higher level spell, namely the White Lightning spell. Unfortunately, that wouldn't fit well with his opponent as a major amount of air pressure, slammed Negi away against a mountain wall.

But the young mage wouldn't stop this battle there. He gained his standing back before his opponent got to him and jumped up the tall mountain wall, rushing himself upwards with the slightly taller one following him closely behind. Oh, the young mage wouldn't have him following though, as several arrows made short work of that small effort.

_Okay, I'm in such huge amount of trouble here, now! _Negi thought as he managed to get to the top of the big mountain wall in the Himalaya section of the resort, and he continued to run as his opposition got up there as well, preparing to fire scores of energy blasts. Fortunately the young mage was fast enough even without his boostup to dodge and block all those that came too close towards him. _I knew that we would come to blows any day, but now I really regret that it happened now..._

"You need to mind your surroundings, Negi." His opponent's voice came from behind and the young mage snapped into action, deflecting the first blow and trying to get in a Raikahouken blow against him, but that was blocked and Negi was sent away by a kick that came from nowhere right to his shoulder, with enough force to slam him away and slide against the ground. "...Seriously, this feels almost ridiculous in doing. We're fighting each other over an argument that could be settled nice and easy. Can't you just let this one slip by?" Aristodemus asked the young mage as he was getting up on his feet. Negi rushed straight at him, fists clenched. "...Guess not..." The Spartan said before it was his turn to get thrashed.

The young redhead mage slammed the Spartan down to the ground first, using his knee to hit the old man right in the face as they fell down. Then as they flew upward slightly due to the impact blast, Negi proceeded to give Aris a couple of blows right to the head before they got down on the ground again. "...Let this slip by?" Negi echoed the words. "How can I let 'let's kill the reason we went to war in the first place', "slip by"?"

"Oh, come on, this again?" Aris asked, leaning on his elbows whilst trying to get up. "Negi, you must be more stubborn than I don't know what! I mean, damn! You're still clinging on to saving Miyazaki?"

"That's why I got into this mess, to begin with!" Negi countered. "And I don't recall, volunteering for your ideals, Aris-san." Negi said, pointing at the Spartan.

"No, you didn't." Aris agreed with him on that, before his kick impacted with Negi, sending him upward into the sky. "But you got pulled into this before I did." The Spartan continued, appearing next to Negi. "And since you thought I would help you out, you accepted my command with just a hint of doubt."

"With good reason." Negi said, as they landed again, since Aris didn't make any blows on him whilst up there. "I had the feeling that you would do something that we wouldn't like some day, but this, I didn't expect at all! Sending a team to kill Nodoka-san!"

"I haven't even decided on the bloody matter, and you think like it's already too late!" Aris yelled at him. "Geez, you really are denser than rock! ...Nagi simply must be your dad."

"Well, I can't let you do as you think just because it's for the benefit of all!" Negi shouted at him, going at him at again. "Not on this one, at least!"

"Oh, for crying out loud. You're really just a kid if you're just going to leave it at that, Negi!" Aris turned Negi's whole body around after about 30 punches and slammed him down against the ground. "How are we going to settle this if you just want to get your point through with your fists?" That got him a kick right to the face.

"Whoa, they're not going easy on each other down there!" Ukita yelled over the massive shock blasts that dominated the sound area in the Himalayas. The two combatants were airborne in their fight now, and almost each impact they made on each other caused a large shock wave that blew away snow. "They're... they're just like monsters out there."

"Monsters?" Ashracai echoed the word. "That word has nothing to with this situation."

The group that was present when the young mage had knocked the Spartan's lights out in the dean's office (minus the dean) had entered the Himalaya region shortly after the two combatants had done so, only to find that the mountain regions had turned in a major combat zone between two magnificent fighters. They stood a good distance away on a specifically made platform that hovered a good distance away from the battlefield. Most had been given warm robes because of the extreme cold. Only Fate and the Githyanki Archmage didn't need such clothing.

"Oh come on, they can't be human with those moves!" Ukita argued. "I've never seen anyone, not even a master, move with such skill or speed."

"I have." Kenichi countered, recalling what his own masters were capable of.

"Ukita-kun, there is more to this than you think." Fate informed the Judo thrower. "Negi-kun for instance, is a genius in both matters of theory and practicality. From what I gather, he is able to pick up combat techniques in just a matter of hours where it would take experts weeks. He is also brilliant with studies, having graduated _summa cum lade _out of the Magic Academy in Wales two years ahead of normal graduation for magi. Couple that along with a brilliant tactical mind in close quarters and he could best opponents twice his age, size and experience."

"Which he has, for a fact." Yue added to boost the impressiveness of her teacher. "But equally, he is facing a highly dangerous opponent. Aristodemus-san has had centuries, even millenia of warfare endurance along with personal combat experience against probably anything that this world has produced. What's more, he has very much taken up practice of more than just Western martial arts, traveling all across the world to learn from other cultures. It is most likely that he has master decree in virtually every martial art in the world, along with a huge amount of theoretical knowledge of magic, plus an outstanding understanding of human anatomy."

"That body of his has been forged in the furnaces of real life and death combat for more than 2500 years, making him the most powerful human on both the Old World and the Magic World." Fate continued. "He had the bonus of not being able to die, which is why he is able to learn from his mistakes in facing other styles. Truly, he is one that my boss took action to avoid for as long as possible."

"Twenty-five hundred years?" Both martial arts disciples exclaimed. "No one can be that old, no matter what kind of techniques they are employing!" Kenichi argued.

"I'd counter that." Ashracai said calmly. "It is most likely because of a massive amount of magic energy that swayed by Earth at the time of his original death, infusing him with enough to prevent him from ever dying. If he died in a battlefield, and was marked with something that made him stand out, then the amount of deaths on that day would have added to the magic that made him immortal. It's an early form of necromancy, or perhaps even blood magic. Very crude, but highly powerful if it has lasted this long."

"Wait a minute." Yue said. "You're saying that the deaths of thousands at Plataea contributed to Aristodemus-san's immortality?"

"Could be." Ashracai said. "Magic energy is infused into every living being, it's like the very air we breathe. In addition, blood itself is said to be the essence of life. Think of all that amount of blood being spillt in a single day, and I reckon he had some sort of magic beacon on himself, whether he knew it or not, so the result would be that he absorbed that amount of life force into himself, and it all built up together."

"So... what do you reckon the beacon was?"

"How should I know?" Ashracai said. "I haven't been here very long, myself. So I can't tell what did it."

"Negi!" Asuna called out as she, Kotarou, Mana, Kaede, Ku Fei and a few others out of the class and Shinpaku came out into the Himalayas to look for the young mage. "Where is he? I got so worried when Konoka sent me that text message about him fighting Oyaji for real, and now we can't seem to find him."

"You call him Oyaji?" Matsui asked the redhead girl. In case anyone had forgotten, he was the flagbearer for Shinpaku and therefore, he was Nijima's right hand man, of sorts. Nevertheless, he was not going to leave Nijima's side.

"He took care of me when I was a kid, alright?" Asuna answered him. "I used to live with him in his estate in the Magic World once."

"But why would Negi fight that old geezer now? It wouldn't make sense right now." Kotarou asked out loud.

"In case you forgot, Kotarou, Strategou-dono always knew that he and Negi-bouzu would come to blows someday-de gorazu." Kaede told the hanyou. "Negi-bouzu must have learned something that he didn't like at all with Strategou-dono and naturally their interests would conflict against each other."

"I wouldn't find that surprising." Mana said, crossing her arms. "If anyone of you didn't know, or didn't do some homework on people you didn't know much about, Aristodemus is well known for being a pretty powerful mercenary himself. When he got into the politics for real, he became something of a monster, utilizing every dirty asset in the book and then some to make sure he did to ensure that he got his point across."

(A/N: Yes, I know that Aristodemus is getting a lot of focus here, but bare with me here, please)

"...So... we're expecting some kind of ruthless battle in here?" Kisara asked, standing not far away from the beautiful mercenary.

"Count on it." The Sniper responded to it before a boom was heard ahead of them, and then a form slammed against a small mountain peak, smashing it to bits and the form spun around against them, only to crash a small distance away from them and slide on the snow towards them. It turned out to be the Spartan.

"...Asuna, have you been aware for a long time that your blood relative is very extremely well intended when it comes to his personal beliefs?" He asked after spitting out some snow and a small rock.

"For some time now. Why do you ask?"

"Just wanted to make sure." Aris answered whilst getting up and cracking his neck. And then he sprinted back to where he came from, before tripping on purpose to go down on all fours to move like a swift cat, reminding them of a tiger, jumping with ease between the cliffs of the mountain sides and back to where he had been blown away.

"...Why I feel we're just in way, here?" Ku Fei asked, using her broken Japanese dialect.

"Oh, no. He is fighting against Negi, the only relative I got left, who probably got himself into this mess in the first place." Asuna stated, before summoning her great blade. "I'm going. And I'm gonna help him."

"Wait, you mean Negi-bouzu or the Commander?" Kisara asked getting off the teleportation platform, only to find it ridiculously cold.

"Who do you think?" The younger redhead retorted to her and rushed onward, to where the mage and the immortal were fighting. She was being watched by another young girl who was out there as well...

"Geez, Negi!" Aris cried out over the blows against the two, going on equal terms, though the elder of the two was having trouble himself in holding his younger opponent back. "Anyone else who had a problem with me normally just filed a complaint and such."

"You said it yourself." Negi countered, getting below the Spartan's defense. "This goes beyond Nodoka-san." At that, he smashed the commander up into the air yet again, only to follow him and continue the barrage of attacks himself.

"Yes, I know." Aris said, smoothly deflecting Negi's attacks now. "But me sending a team to kill her is just icing the cake here. I am fully well aware that I've done 'crimes against humanity' as you would see them as, not to mention murder, conspiracy and generally evil deeds." He ranted that list as he brought Negi down to the ground with his defensive maneuvers before using Negi's outstretched arm to spin on the young magi and then knee strike him down to the ground fully. "But I did such things with damn good reason. And I feel no remorse for doing them!"

"Is that simply because you can't feel remorse for actions in the past, or that you just don't care?" Negi demanded to know of the Spartan.

"Hey, don't you dare call me heartless, Negi! I got emotions just as you do, and I don't need to uphold some good ideals that you do!" Aris yelled at the young magi, pointing a finger at him.

"Really!" Negi countered, getting mad and restarting the attack, now going slowly and went with just one attack to make the immortal go backwards slightly. "You don't seem to bother who dies, just as long as your own goals go unscathed, and you don't seem to care if those you know personally go rogue on you, do you!" His second punch against the Spartan was blocked, effortlessly. He couldn't even get it out of the commander's tight grip.

"That's...it?" Aristodemus' voice now sounded really angry, and he didn't look all too happy himself. "The basis of this whole ordeal... is based on that you think I'm some kind of asshole?" In the mere blink of an eye, Negi got exactly three punches on his face, chest and stomach, before a straight forward kick sent him flying straight against the hard rock ground. "Fine! You win that part, because **I am an asshole!**" That last part echoed loudly as a blizzard began to kick up violently around the whole Himalayas.

"Oh, this should be good." Ashracai said, actually kneeling down on the made platform to listen in more closely.

"I'm a backstabbing, lying, plot-conspiring, murdering asshole!" Aris ranted on as Negi just lay there listening, whilst the violent blizzard thundered on around them. "I sneak behind peoples' backs, I make plans, I got plans to kill everybody who intend to double-cross me because they think I'm some crazed lunatic looking out for himself! But you better listen well, you little brat! 'Cuz what I do, I do for the sake of everybody in society and for the good of both worlds! You haven't seen the very worst that Mankind has produced out of its sick head. What I do is to ensure that there will be Good left in them. And don't even think that I would even hesitate to make that that will happen!"

"And what of the family that you took an oath to protect!" Negi demanded to know, rising up. "You were my own mother's personal teacher and she had huge amount of trust and faith in that you did your own duty to the throne, and she meant that little to you!" He lashed out against the Spartan, only to be grabbed by the shirt collar and slammed hard down towards the rock.

"Let me tell you something else, prince-boy." Aris snapped at the young mage. "Your mother was the one person in over four generations aside from little Asuna who stood out amongst the royal family members I taught. She was willing to make sure her own country stayed safe above all, she took huge risks in doing so, convinced your dad to join up on her mission and she went as far as to murder her own father to make sure that it was for the good of everyone. I had never been so proud of just one person in my entire existence. Nagi was something else, too. He joined the war to stop it, just like that. He didn't want any innocents get hurt, he made friends with one of the best fighters Hellas has ever produced and he stood up against the fucking Senate to spring out the woman he loved!" He said that last part lifting Negi up. "They are both people I admire personally because they were able to do such things for the good of everybody. And the Senate hated them for it. They wanted everything to happen for their own personal gain, and don't give a damn about what happens to others. After two-hundred years of having them as a pain in my ass, I can certainly testify the atrocities they accomplished to get themselves on top of the world."

"And you honestly believe that what you do, as a person, is excusable for what it means?" Negi asked, being held by the collar by the Spartan. To his surprise, he wasn't slammed down.

"No. I don't expect everything to be excusable as you put it, Negi." Aris answered him. "But I have been in charge of watching your family for the last 550 years or so, so why should I stop doing that? The Senate took away everything that your mother's side had known in their existence simply because they felt it **belonged to them. **You oughta think about going up against them instead of fighting me."

"Why would I even bother with them at the moment, when the opponent I have right now, is you?" Negi spat at him now, making the Spartan seemingly very angry.

"That's a real nice compliment, but you really are a child if you think that short-term is gonna help you anywhere." With that, Aris put his other hand on Negi's chest, letting go with the other hand, and then a massive Chi blast sent Negi into the tough storm. "You must be making your parents **real** proud right now, thinking you could just coerce me with words into giving in with your ideals, Negi. It won't matter if you manage to beat me anyway. You always have, and you always **will** be watched your entire li-!" Aris didn't get around to finish that sentence because of the huge energy blast that slammed down on his face and upper body, since Negi was away. "Wha- who!" The Spartan asked out before he caught something that looked like a demonic lady figure wearing a form of armor mixed with a black Goth Loli style outfit that seemed like a tight fit. _Wait, that's Asuna. ...Shit._

"**As**!" She started with a punch to his face. "**If**!" Followed by an elbow. "**We**!" She then gave a knee strike to his stomach. "**Let**!" Then a kick to his temple. "**Some**!" And yet another elbow strike, right on the back of his head. "Uptight, obnoxious, pawn-controlling politics-**freak**, keep an eye on us our entire lives!" She finished as she gave a straight kick to the side of his ribcage, sending him flying off, sliding against the ground that was getting covered by snow once again, since most had been blown up by the shock waves he and Negi had been sending out. "We got our own free will, and we like it that way! You somehow waltzed into our lives at some point and now you're deciding to never let us out of your sight and therefore control us into bringing down the Senate! Fuck no, I am not gonna end up on some stupid old throne because **you **say so!"

"...Asuna..." Negi said, crawling towards her, getting aid up on his feet the last effort.

"...Keep an eye on you? Yes." Aris responded, getting up himself without effort. "Let you out of my sight or at least make sure what you are doing? Oh, you can bet your cute little butt I wont. Force you to take the Vespertatian throne because I say so? Fuck that." He said. "I never said that I was gonna force either of you to take the cause to restore the kingdom. You may reject the throne all you like, and I respect that fully. But do you really think that I would just leave it like that? Someday, one of your descendants, it could be your child, grandchild or even their grandchild, who genuinely wants to become full fledged royalty. I can wait that long, even **if** Mundus Magicus would collapse, because I've already taken precaution to that. There are scores of places on Earth that would serve just nicely for a restart of Vespertatia; Atlantis, El Dorado, Shangri-La, Avalon, to name a few. For the past twenty years, I've spent my time using my resources finding these places and making sure that they remain hidden from the eyes of mundanes. Even if it is you two, words alone is not gonna stop me from my duty as Grandmaster of the Vesper Knights."

For a moment there, just one second was all that was needed, Negi thought that he was seeing Chao there instead. "...Do you really believe that Arika-sama would let you do as you please just in order to do all this?" Asuna demanded to know of the Spartan.

"Arika was a good student and a fine princess. She would understand my reasoning. I have not shirked my duty to the bloodline, and I certainly will not for you two!" Aris responded before another one slammed down a fist on his face, and then sending him flying against a mountain wall, yet again. They at least heard a crack from the direction he came from.

"Kotarou-kun?" Negi exclaimed, seeing the hanyou there, in his battle outfit and arms fixed in his wolfman forms, just the arms.

"Heard it all." Kotarou answered him. "At least enough to come down here myself to help you kick this guy's ass. Besides, he owes me a fight. I mean, there should be a limit to how loyal one should be. Look at Gödel and look how he turned out."

"...Gödel is too obsessed with his own unrequited love for Arika to see what path is the best." Aris informed them as he stepped out of the blizzard, being somewhat roughed up by Kotarou's attacks and the mountain wall. "It's almost a wonder kids doesn't get the meaning what grown-ups say, nowadays."

"Ah come on, what does it take to make you get really hurt?" Kotarou exclaimed. "You've been getting your ass whooped by Negi for some time and then Asuna came in with her Kanka blasts and power-up, and then me with my youkai powers! What would it take to bring you down!"

"Judging on what you children have been throwing at me, I'd say it's something you don't have. Furthermore, I've seen a whole lot tougher stuff than what you were using. With the addition of my combat experience, you'd also think I would have used my own powers to boost myself up in defensive capability to make sure I took as little damage as possible and swiftness so I could dodge enough so that the impact would be at the least effectiveness." Aris informed. "I haven't lived two millenia for nothing, you know."

"Yeesh, I thought Rakan was tough to handle in our fight against him, but you're a monster in comparison to him." The hanyou responded to the Spartan, not looking glad. "Granted it's all thanks to the whole Immortal thing, but you must be more broken than him."

"Not that I'd know what that means, but this whole ordeal wouldn't have happened if you kids hadn't decided to jump the gun all because the option of eliminating Miyazaki lay open before me." Aris accused them. "I mean seriously, you didn't think this through. There were other options that I could have picked back then, I was just thinking of the potential benefits of choosing just that one. Is even that wrong with you people?"

"We're talking about a very close friend of ours here, Oyaji." Asuna countered him. "Why would we even think of letting you go through with this? You might think of doing this because you're no longer human, but we **know** this girl. This is a young girl who has every chance at life she deserves, one who confessed openly to Negi, the first one in fact, and she wants to spend her days with him. And Negi has in person given a vow that he wouldn't let anybody bring her harm in any way, whatsoever. I support that, and I want her to be with Negi. Not that I've got sort of feelings for him myself and just want to shut down the rumors that we're a thing, but because she deserves him. If you think that you could just ignore all that, then you're caught dead wrong in the water, 'cuz we'll just beat the crap out of you until you get our point of view."

"...Thank you for that speech, Asuna. I'll take that into consideration when I make the final call." Aris said. "But I'm not fully convinced by your cause."

"What?" All three kids exclaimed.

"Come on, you didn't actually think that words were gonna stop me, after I said so?" Aris said. "She is special to you, yes, I gather that. I'm not human, I gathered that a long time ago. But don't think that emotions alone can sway a butcher who's stuck in a very delicate position. I need to make sure that I make all the big shots happy, lest we lose this war. You may be a big shot yourself, Negi, but if I took what you considered all the time, then I'd be accused of favoritism by the others. I can't have that happen." Aris told them before taking a fighting stance. "I'm sorry, but if you truly want to sway me to your will, you'll have to make a damn good impression of what you got and then some more."

"Oh, I for one wouldn't have it any other way." Kotarou responded grinning and took his own fighting stance.

"Fine, be that way, Oyaji." Asuna added, calling forth her great Zanbato blade and took her position with it.

"...That's the way, then alright." Negi said finally, before taking his stance in between Asuna and Kotarou. "We'll make you see our point, Aristodemus-san."

_...I'm sure Arika would scold all of us for this behavior..._ The Spartan thought to himself. "That will depend on how you fa-" A great metallic hand put itself on his shoulders before he could finish that sentence. "What the-?"

"I'm disappointed, Father." Alicia said in monotone to him, wearing her massive armor, but she was not wearing the helmet at the moment. "Very disappointed."

"Ohh..." was all the Spartan could get out of his mouth before she slammed him down against the surface ground with the armor's right hand, sliding him forward a little, before lifting him up so high he was airborne for a few brief seconds, and then used the moment to use her left massive arm to slam him away, hard. The velocity was so high that he made a pretty deep hole on the mountain wall where he impacted. _Note to self: When you have in your possession a heavily modified Terminator Armor infused with magic and reinforced metal, **don't **give it to your underage daughter. At least until she's hit puberty._

"Alicia-san?" Negi exclaimed seeing her again outside of their room.

"Alicia-chan!" Asuna exclaimed, seeing the little girl slam down her own dad like that.

"And her giant armor suit as well?" Kotarou's turn was more directed at seeing the great armor that she had when they fought each other. There were a few distinct features to it, this time. The Lambda had been removed from its shoulder plate, and put on the left hand instead. In its' place, was the Ala Alba symbol, clearly showing her allegiance, as well as revealing to the young mage that she was there to help him. Also, Lochaber, her speaking axe Device was in the right hand as well.

"Whooo!" Konoka cheered for them now. "Alicia-chan is here to help!"

"What is that?" The guys asked, referring of course to the great armor.

"You don't know? Oh, never mind that, you haven't seen it before." Konoka said. "That's Alicia-chan, the Strategou's own daughter. She has a crush on Negi-kun, it wouldn't surprise me to find her on his side."

"That didn't answer their question, Konoka-san." Yue said. "We faced against that armor before, and we can only tell that's what she uses in combat." She informed them.

"...Do you think it would be okay for me to take a closer look at it?" The Archmage asked, with apparent sparkles in his eyes. "For academical reasons? I mean, between two scholars of magic items, regardless of size, for sharing information?"

"You giths don't have anything like that?" Luna asked the Gith mage.

"Well, yes we do. But nothing on this level of magic significance. I mean, whoever made that suit of armor is either a savant of magic forging or a grandmaster of the art of blacksmithing. It would truly please me if I got to meet this person."

"Alicia-chan..." Asuna inquired of the little blond girl. "Why are you on our side? Since he's your dad, shouldn't you be helping Oyaji?"

"...I know he's my father, Asuna-san." Alicia started off, with confidence now to speak. "But I have my own reasons for doing battle against him alongside you. Mainly because he's lost his way as a leader, and I don't want him to fall down too far."

"_**Ah got a piece of me mind ta give tha' rot'en basterd as well..." **_Her axe, Lochaber spoke as well. **_"Plus, Ah think tha' mah Liegfch also has taken a shine ta ye, ye little red-hedded runt." _**The axe's words got Alicia sent panicking slightly and blushing like Nodoka used to do. _**"I say, mah Liegfch tends to tell me tales that she can't sleep properly wifout thinkin' of ye evry niht and make pretty draving's of ye from time ta time and-" **_He was interrupted by Alicia's great left armor hand grabbed his head and held it tight. **_"...Ah guess this be me time to shut up, ain't it?"_** Lochaber said in the end, his voice muffled because of the great hand.

"...Negi, you know how to handle them." Asuna said quietly, lowering her greatsword.

Negi just sighed. "...Alright... Alicia-san, you and I can spend some time together some other day, but not now. I hope you'll understand."

"Yes." Alicia answered him briefly before the sound of rock scraping against one another reached their ears.

"...Oof. Ow." Aris said as he crawled out of the big hole, now really roughed up. "That really smart..." He stopped moving when he saw the whole group of kids in front of him. A few brief seconds of staring at each other, the Spartan finally sighed. "...I guess I'll need to use a few things now..."

"Huh?" Asuna was confused at what Aris had said just then.

"I'm not willing to face off against these kinds of odds without some form of items to have for myself. I may be immortal and all, but I can't rush into something without weapons and armor, can I?" He said as he drew out several cards of a particular form they recognized.

"What the-?" Kotarou exclaimed, seeing the cards.

"Those are-" Asuna continued, whilst Negi seemed to almost shiver in dread at the number the Spartan had pulled out.

"Fear not. These are not Pactio cards." Aris stated for them whilst plucking a few out of the great amount he had in his hand. "I simply had transferred the artifacts I intend to use into cards, allowing greater mobility and access to them. Don't worry, I won't use all of them, just the ones I need for this moment." The first card he drew summoned a form of plate armor onto him. What was most notable, was its direct similarity to a Hoplite suit of armor. There were few outer weak spots that could be grabbed by an exterior hand. The breastplate had no such weakness, being a massively thick cuirass of seemingly silver like metal, but undoubtedly stronger. The shoulder pads was like two bowls covering his shoulders, and the arms were covered by chain-mail of the same metal. A bracer was put on each forearm, with the left one seeming more gold-copper colored like than the right one which was made the same like the rest of the armor. The battle skirt as it seemed to be, consisted of two metal plates on his sides of the hips that molded to them down the thighs. The front and back had studded leather, the leather set into small sections with rivets to connect them. They covered most of his thighs as well, apart from the hips. His legs had plating there as well to, with chain-mail underneath.

Finally, he drew another card and summoned forth a helmet that reminded them of the ancient Greek battle helmets, at least the Chalcidian ones. It retained its nose guards and fixed cheek pieces. It finally had a transverse horsehair crest on the top, making them recall that he was still an officer and still in charge of this operation.

"...Oh, boy. This is gonna hurt like I don't know what." Kotarou said as the Spartan put on his helmet, and as he finished, some black aura covered his entire face, and revealed a pair of glowing white eyes instead. "That's not good."

"Oh, I almost forgot my best party piece." Aris said, stretching out his right arm, to have a certain glow to it. A second later, he was swinging his arm concentrated, with an apparent whip of metal in hand, deliberately missing Negi's group, and then immediately stopping, returning the hand to his side. "...I did say that I had myself one of those swords too, didn't I?" The Spartan inquired as the whip molded its liquid metal into the Silver Sword he had for himself.

"Figures. Seems almost fitting that you would bring that along." Asuna said, reassuring her stance. Alicia let go of Lochaber with her right hand, to have the great mask that comes with the suit emerge from the back of her armor, caught it with the right hand and asserted it on to the suit, covering her own face.

"Now then... Shall we?" Aris asked as he took his stance with his silver blade, it changing into a kind of greatsword for his usage.

"I'm beginning to see why you wanted to avoid him, Fate Averruncus." Yue said as the group of four engaged the Spartan on a massive level now. The shockwaves were immense now, despite the blizzard.

"Yes." The white-haired mage said, looking ever undaunted by the looks of things. "I was glad that he partially sided with us. Course, he also went against us when he felt we crossed the line, but he can agree with us on a personal level."

"What are you talking about?" Ukita asked of the magic side of this minor army that was gathering underneath the Strategou's banner. "What sides are we talking about here?"

"Nothing that concerns people that only wish to live happily in peace in their own world." Fate replied instantly to the Judo thrower, much to his chagrin.

"Hmmm..." Ashracai hummed to himself loudly. "...I can definitely keep a secret to myself. I can use Psychometry in order to find out what it's about and still not tell them." He informed Fate.

"No thanks." Fate denied the suggestion immediately to that. "...I've had enough of aliens touching my head for information for a while."

"Fair enough." The Archmage responded, before getting a silent nudging from Luna from behind him. Getting the idea, he grasped the girl's hand and took in the information.

"_The Magic World, or Mundus Magicus as we know it,"_ Luna told him with her thoughts regarding the bigger situation. _"is going to collapse, nearly any day now... And when it will collapse, all the native inhabitants there will vanish alongside it, whilst the true humans would be exposed to the harsh environment of Mars... The natives are no more than a huge illusion... Earth can't sustain the amount of 67 million true humans coming from the Magic World..."_

"I see..." Ashracai said finally, having connected the dots together. "...So that's how it is..." _As much as I can understand Averruncus' way of thinking how to deal with the problem, that is not a good way how to deal with it... Perhaps I should take a proper look at "Mundus Magicus" in person to determine what to do with it..._

If anything, this fight was surely the toughest one Negi and co had ever done. Not even Fate matched up to this one. Aris had prepped himself up real good for this battle and he knew what to do. Granted, Alicia was there to help Negi's side, but it was no walk in the park, either.

Aristodemus' armor protected him nearly all too well for them to make any real damage, and he knew how to counter their attacks with his own moves. He had troubles himself, as the attacks that the kids did land on him was enough to disrupt him and bash him away, if only for a brief moment.

Kotarou was the most aggressive of the four, going ferociously on the Spartan with fists, kicks, even claws and his Inugami dogs to keep the elder fighter distracted. However, Aris had fought Inugami and demon summoners before, and his Chi blasts, concentrated and accurate, kept most wolf spirits at bay and the hanyou in check from dominating the battlefield.

Asuna in almost sheer contrast, went straight at the Spartan with her great blade, not swinging it wildly for once. She kept herself in check for once and used every chance she got to just hit the old man with her fists and knee strikes, alongside Kotarou. If it wasn't for the other two combatants there as well, the Spartan would have taken them both out in one go.

Speaking of which, the little girl in the big (Very big, actually) suit of armor was the worst, both physically, and mentally. Alicia was his daughter, even though not biologically, he had in the short time they had been together, come to see her as his daughter, even though she was helping beating the crap out of him. What's more, the armor she had was very expensive, not to mention unique, and he didn't really want to break it. Best thing he could do was just throw it away from him, only to have her return it to him, not in a friendly manner. Lochaber didn't help things either, taunting the old man with that Scottish accent of his. _**"That be tha wurst toss ah've evah seen! Ye couldnae hit tha broadside of a barn if ye wanted to!"**_

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, you bloody talking axe!" Aris shouted back at him. "I should have emptied your grammar store when I had the chance!"

Finally, Negi was very adamant. Being a slippery one and fast as well, the young mage gave Aris more trouble than he wanted, using his own martial skills to tremendous effect. Most likely based that Aris could follow him anywhere, so he decided to just keep going forward against the Spartan, eventually trying to find a weak spot. He's found plenty and used most of them, since he desperately needed them against this opponent.

"Okay, go away now." Aris said shortly after a long moment of battle and fast before he slammed them all away with pure Chi energy, sending them flying a good distance away from him, as the blizzard raged on now, going in full force. "Whew, that bought me some time. Not that the blizzard is going to hold them for long..."

"Argh! Nothing works on him!" Kotarou complained, getting alongside the others.

"_**Actually, we done lots of damage ta him. 'tis just that armah ov his that takes most ov it."**_ Lochaber argued, and he made sense. If only he could drop the accent, then things would be easier. _**"We need a way ta hurt tha armah massivahli, then keep it sappressed undah hevvy barrage and go in cloos on 'im."**_

"So..." Asuna tried to decipher what Lochaber had said just then. "We need to make one big blast on him first, then just keep shooting at him whilst going in melee with him at the same time?"

"Right." Alicia said, through the helmet's visor, at any rate, it sounded coarse and not like the sweet voice she usually has. "I can use the suit to provide the suppressive fire on him, but we still need a powerful shot."

"Then change into suppressive fire mode while we got this window at least!" Kotarou shouted over the blizzard. "Negi, think you could throw a spell at him to make a dent?"

"Afraid not." Negi replied to him. "We might something with more kick to it and goes a lot faster than my chanting." At that, Alicia's armor went off. The huge left arm remodeled, or transformed more like, into a great version of an energy firing gatling gun, whilst two smaller guns with oddly formed barrels emerged on the top of the armor right above her helmet. The helmet itself, opened up sideways to reveal the little blond girl with several hologramatic screens going up in front of her, as well as a minor one going right in front of her right eye for aiming. "...for once, I find something like that extremely cool..." The young mage said, seeing the newly transformed armor redirecting its guns towards the Spartan.

"I think I'm gonna have to agree." Kotarou said, staring at the big guns. Not that he was a gun nut, but because the armor was able to bring them out. The blizzard ended just then for them to see the Spartan and their opponent's widened eyes as he saw the guns that Alicia had brought out.

Somewhere else, Mana had set herself up with providing actual cover fire for the team of children. "This one's for free, Negi-sensei. Any more rounds and I'll charge you." She had armed herself with a massive railgun, a rifle that used magnetic rails to send small iron projectiles into massive speeds against their targets. In effect, it's a tankbuster weapon. "Bang." She whispered to herself before firing the weapon.

At seven times the speed of sound, the others didn't realize that Aris had been shot until they saw him fly backwards by the blast, along with a hole on the left shoulder, quite a biggie. The little blond girl in the suit of armor didn't hesitate, but with a reluctant look on her face, fired upon her dad, not wishing to hold back.

"Now's our chance!" Asuna cried over the gunfire. "Kotarou, take the left flank, I'll take the right! Negi, you stay back and prepare something!" With that, she went straight for the right side of the gunfire against the Spartan, whilst Kotarou rushed to the left without even getting a chance for discussion.

Negi stayed reluctantly behind, and prepared one spell which would take time, but got that bit covered by the teamwork of his comrades. "...Rastel Maskil Magister To Sumbolaion diakoneto moi..."

Meanwhile, Aris did have loads of trouble fending off attacks from three different directions. One side, fine. Two sides, may be a bit tricky. But three sides at once? Now that is very difficult to pull off on the defensive side. Kotarou kept charging Inugami at him, since he had a whole lot more control over them since Ostia, and Asuna acted with heavy bombardment of her Kankahou empowerment not to mention going in close on occasion against him with her greatsword to get a good aim too on where to shoot. If that didn't make things bad already, Alicia was employing the suit's entire firepower on him on the front.

Negi wasn't anywhere to be seen. Odd, since he was the initial starter of this battle. He was most likely behind Alicia, but he couldn't move to investigate. Not while under fire, that is, and Kotarou and Asuna weren't making things easier for him as well.

"_**The red-hedded runt 'as finished 'is incan-inca-inc, 'is spell singing! Gat in cloose ta him and keep 'im busy!" **_Lochaber's voice was heard in Asuna and Kotarou's vicinity, somehow, and without registering, they went in close. Alicia decided to follow suit, transforming her left arm cannon back into its normal hand shape.

"Yes!" Aris cried that out pleasingly, as his opponents went in for the kill on him. "Mistake!" He responded to Kotarou first, knocking him downward to the ground, before turning on Asuna. The redhead skipped her blade and went with her regained Muay Thai skills, only he countered her with similar moves along with a vicious throw down on the wolf boy. "Good initial attack, but your mistake was to get in close on me, kids."

"You might want to look for another attack." Asuna smirked at him, even though Kotarou had his face down her bosom.

"Eh?" Aris said, confused before looking up. The first thing he saw was a giant Terminator armor with Alicia as the head, charging straight at him with Lochaber in hand. "Oh." On pure reaction, as Alicia was swinging her giant fist, he blocked and deflected it with his right hand, then used his other to take hold of the mid-section of her suit, and with his right hand taking hold on her shoulder, lifted the giant armor clear off the ground. "Nice try." He said, before he noticed that his daughter was not surprised, but maintained a sturdy look on her cute face. _**Thump-thump.**__ Huh? This is time in between heartbeats..._ Aris thought instantaneously whilst he was holding Alicia's armor up and the second heartbeat had yet to come. _She's maintaining a strong face? Wait... she was prepared for this. This attack was only a diversion! But if they planned for this, then that means Negi's right- __**Thump-thump**_ "Fu-"

The Spartan couldn't finish that, because of the massive spear that penetrated his cuirass and sent him flying rapidly against the mountain wall. _This is the Spear of the Lightning God, the Titan Slayer! _Aris thought as he felt the great lightning weapon through the armor and into his own body, causing him to cough up blood. _I should have seen this one coming!_ He had little time to think further before slamming into the rock, the spear sticking him into it, and his helmet came loose and flew off high into the air.

"Alicia, Now!" Negi cried out, as the armor landed on both feet safely on the ground next to him. Alicia didn't answer, but fired off instead the two railguns above her head to a position above the Spartan, near the top of the big cliff.

"...uh oh." Aris could only exclaim as the rock slide came tumbling down upon him, crushing him alive underneath the massive rubble, sword and all.

All the children could do was to pant and catch their breath while the helmet bounced off the pile of rocks and sliding down to their feet. "...We..." Kotarou said, as Negi's Thunder God form was starting to turn down, back into his normal form. "...we did it."

"Yay." Asuna managed to get out. That fight exhausted them all. "Now, we can, convince him... to say no." She panted heavily.

Negi didn't feel so comforted. But he was at least glad that was over. The platform with the spectators had mixed reactions. Konoka and Luna were cheering and hugging each other in joy, Yue let out a relieved breath she didn't know she held, Kenichi and Ukita had dropped their jaws in surprise. Ashracai merely nodded at their success, whilst Fate merely huffed.

It didn't take long before the rubble began to move on the top. Negi was the only one standing, save Alicia in her armor. Lochaber didn't count, because he was held. Asuna and Kotarou were still on the ground, the former had rolled off the latter when she realized what position they were in after the fight, so they were a bit slow to get up. Only... they didn't need to. Aris came crawling out on the top, all bruised and covered in dust. He didn't seem to be in the mood to fight either, just crawled on the rocks to get to even ground. He must have broken something, because he slipped with one hand and that led to that he fell down the rock rubble, his silver blade accompanying him down to the ground.

The very bruised and damaged Spartan managed to at least get into a sitting position, to look at the young mage with exhausted eyes. "...Why?" He asked softly, catching them off-guard. "...Why go this far... for just one...student?"

"Wha... What do you mean 'Why' now!" Asuna exclaimed, very angry. "We told you that this is about a highly special student and friend! What more reason is there?"

"Asuna, he wasn't talking to you." Negi cut her off softly. "He's talking to me."

"There is never enough reason for something like this." Aris informed them. "And no teacher, regardless of level, would go as far as this for one student, as it violates teachers' requirement of education equality..." He paused to give a few coughs. "...Even for a friend, no one would risk such high levels of insubordination."

"Even so..." Negi tried to explain his situation. "You know that I would do anything for my students. Nodoka-san is both friend and student."

"And that's violating the equality for education." Aris interrupted the young mage. "You want to do a great job being a teacher, but right now, you're just being selfish, as you were with finding your dad. Do you think she would have preferred to see you like this?"

"Wha-" Negi could only get out of his mouth, before getting a sudden but slight pain in his chest. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying, Negi..." Aris tried to get up, but in vain because of the pain load he had received. "...that I doubt that while she would appreciate it personally, Miyazaki would scold you for going this far for her. Why are you even doing this, even if you know it is wrong, even if you realize what amount of trouble you would be in with other people?" he asked of the young mage.

"...Because..." Negi tried to find the right words but couldn't bring them out. "Because- Because-" Then the pain grew stronger in him. "Be-Aaaargh!"

"Negi?" Asuna and Kotarou exclaimed, seeing the young teacher get down on one knee and clutch his chest in agony.

"Negi?" Aris tried to step forward, but his own pain made him fall down. "What's going on?"

"Negi-san?" Alicia stepped forward to put her hand on Negi, but as she did so, the young mage spun around faster than she could see him, and gave a vicious if not ferocious punch against her armor's torso, sending her high into the air and then crashing down against the ground. Those on the platform, were stunned and looked highly confused as to what was happening.

"What the!" Kotarou exclaimed, but a look at Negi, changed everything. He looked the same as to when his Magia Erebea went into berserk, only much more dangerous and corrupted, in a way of putting it. His Gospel of Darkness had emerged out of nowhere, and it didn't look like it was gonna go away soon. "Oh, boy."

"What is that?" Asuna could only get out of herself.

"...This is **so** not good." Aristodemus said, not smirking nor smiling to himself, as demonic presences was always difficult to handle, as his old Paladin experience with the church had taught him that the hard way. Upon hearing the Spartan's voice, the possessed Negi turned around to view him as a first target. **"Crap."**

"No, you don't." One scolded the other for trying to sneak off, willing to investigate the explosions in the distance. The two had been in a cave all along once a blizzard had kicked in. "You are not leaving this cave, until you've mastered that last one."

"But, sensei-" The other one, roughly smaller and more slim tried to reason with her.

"It's Master, young birdie." The taller one cut her off.

"Master," The smaller reluctantly repeated. "Those blastwaves have only been increasing since the blizzard came upon us. Don't you think it is worth looking into?"

"I do." The Master replied. "But I want you to be able to change at least your own hair color before we go out there to check what's going on. Now one last try and focus on this one, lest I go all over you again."

"Yes... Master." the disciple replied bitterly and sat down again toward the fire. The last time she was insubordinate, she had been forced down onto her own bedroll, stripped bare of clothes and then molested and licked by the Master. Not raped or anything, but close to it. So it was something she didn't want to experience.

"That's it..." Her master said, as the disciple breathed slowly, as her hair began to somehow take life of its own and take several colors it didn't originally have. "...Good. You're keeping an open mind on what to have... keep going... Now... give in t-"

_**KABOOOOOM! **_

That last explosion occurred right outside their cave, throwing both of them off-balance. "Changeofplans! We'regoingoutthere (inhale of air!) to investigatetheexplosions (inhale of air!) rightnow! WhatsayyouSetsuna?" Rachel screamed after the boom had laid off, the older of the two by unknown years having been completely upside down by the explosion, whilst Setsuna, who was the disciple in the cave.

"Right." Setsuna said and took out at least her pactio card she had with Konoka and the two left the cave to find out what was going on. What they stumbled upon was complete chaos. If one said that a battlefield was more of a massacre, but the defendants were capable of staying alive, then this was it. Something dark was going ferociously on Asuna, Kotarou, the Spartan and Alicia in her armor, the named ones having mixed difficulty handling themselves, and protecting each other from the dark thing. "Wha- What's happening?" Setsuna exclaimed seeing it all happen beneath them.

"Forget asking!" Rachel proclaimed immediately. "We gotta get in there and pull their asses out of there!"

"Wait!" Setsuna stopped her, to take a look at the sinister form attacking them. She gasped loudly when she saw who it was. "That's Negi-sensei! His Dark Magic must have taken over!"

"Wait, that's Negi-chan!" Rachel asked, taking another look. "...Fuck, this is gonna be harder than I thought, if it's him."

"Erm... shall we?" Setsuna asked gently whilst summoning forth her blade that Konoka gave her upon their Pactio forming.

"Yeah... Let's before this party becomes worse than it is." The shapechanger drew her own Falx blade and jumped first into the fray.

"What the hell is that?" Kenichi burst out of himself, seeing Negi's terrifying form.

"Um, well-!" Konoka tried to explain, but words failed her.

"That would be his Magia Erebea." Fate said shortly. "Dark Magic."

"Dark magic?" Ukita exclaimed, shocked fully.

"It's a bit of a- Hey, what gives!" Kazumi, who had stayed quiet mostly, felt a rough hand grasp her shoulder.

"Hey!" Konoka said, getting one as well.

"Ow!" Luna said shortly, being grasped as well.

Fate felt one take his own arm. "I thought I said-" He was cut short by seeing the Gith Archmage having grasped all four of them with each of his arms, since apparently, he had four arms at the time, and his eyes were glowing bright blue.

"The Githyanki got four arms!" Both martial artists shouted, seeing that sight as well as everyone else. "We're screwed."

"Silence." Ashracai demanded of them. "I'm finding out about this Magia Erebea right now. "Do not interrupt me." He instructed them shortly, while Negi was going on a rampage, and then they saw Rachel and Setsuna intervene the possessed mage in his attacks, to hold him off until at least Alicia got away from him. "...So that is how it is." Ashracai said quietly.

"Eh?" Konoka said. "That fast for you to find out?" She asked while the Archmage removed a belt from underneath his cloak and picked a few small things out of a backpocket. Then she felt two of the four arms that Ashracai had at the moment, the next thing she knew was that they had jumped off the platform. All she could do was scream loudly in fear.

"Why are we falling off! Why are we falling off!" Kenichi's voice was heard next to her, and the healer noticed the martial artist being held by the Gith as well. Then, a loud thump and crack with an abrupt stop.

"Time is of the essence right now." Ashracai said putting them down. "You two stay here. Konoka, I need you to hold on to this." Without letting her have a say, he had hung a beautiful necklace around her neck, a large ruby linked in a platinum chain. "If you wear that, everything should be fine. Also have this." He handed her a card that featured some sort of dismounted knight with a greatsword in hand. "It's a Servant card. If you use it, then you'll summon a magic Servant to come to your side and follow your instructions." Then he turned to Kenichi. "Shirahama Kenichi, was it? I want you to protect Konoka at all costs. I'll give you this to aid." He handed the young man a Servant card as well, this one featuring a bowman with a mask, rendering its identity unknown.

"Wait." Konoka said, getting the Archmage's attention. "How do I summon the Servant? And what will it do?"

"The Servant will aid me in the task I intend to do. It'll know what to do. All it needs are your orders, or permission to do so alongside me." He instructed her. "To summon the Servant, you just need to say its Title."

"Not that I know what the title is..." Konoka tried to explain her situation to him.

"...Saber." He said shortly. Konoka repeated the Title to the card and that worked. The card split into two energy forces, one of those going into her arm to form elaborate tattoos on it, the other took shape in front of her. It turned into a kneeling knight, clad in really archaic armor, chain-mail beneath strong bronze colored scales of some giant beast the knight had probably slain in the past. Along with a short encompassing white mantle, the knight had no helmet, revealing... _her_ to be a Githyanki as well. She had long black hair tied into a horsetail and she had more features that made her seem more... human looking than what Ashracai looked like.

"Once again, I have been summoned." The named Saber spoke softly. "I have rested a long while and come forth yet again to-" She stopped when she looked up to view a frightened Konoka in front of her. Saber rose up fast to take a better look. She was considerately much taller than the healer. "You aren't my usual Master."

"A-hem." Ashracai interrupted that awkward moment between the two. "Little time to explain, Saber. But we need to save somebody."

"Who?" Saber asked and the mage pointed to the great battle where Negi was holding off against the others, minus a fleeing Alicia with Lochaber. "I see..." She said, grasping the situation. "And you gave me to another because...?"

Ashracai pointed to the necklace around Konoka's neck. "That is why. We've done this before, Saber. We're going to do it once more."

"What? Do what?" Kenichi tried to be in the loop.

"Long story, no time." The Archmage told him. "Cut short, we're going to stop Negi." He said later.

"And how are you going to do that?" Kenichi asked of them this time.

"Everything will be revealed in due time." Ashracai explained. "In due time. Whilst Saber understands what we're about to do, I'm afraid that Konoe Konoka, does not. Even with her own partner out there fighting Negi, or whatever it is taking hold of him, it is not enough. My method will work, and Saber will be the one to execute it along with me, but we do need Konoka's permission to do it in the first place."

"So... you want me to give you permission to aid this situation?" Konoka asked them, bringing out her smart side again.

"We won't lie." Saber started off. "What we would do will seem horrifying to you at first, and cause major confusion. For us to do this without any complication, we need this out of the way. Besides, you are my Master at the moment, Lady. What is your order for me in this battle?"

The healer didn't think of any at first, but a glance back at the battle where Negi was holding off Rachel and Setsuna, whilst Asuna had to carry a wounded Kotarou back, and Alicia had put her dad on her back to fall back as well, She reached a conclusive one for Saber. "...Please. I... I want you to save Negi-kun. He doesn't know that he's out of control, he can't get a grip of this... So," She paused to stop a few tears that had come out and took a deep breath. "My orders are this: Whatever you plan to do, you must save Negi-kun. I don't think I could settle for less."

"...Understood, Master." Saber said, turning then to the Archmage and nodded. "Give me the weapon needed for this." She asked of him.

"Finally, now we can set thought into action." He replied and pulled a great two-bladed sword, two long blades sharing the same handle, each on its own end. The first blade was glowing brightly white like the sun, warm and gentle, and the other was its direct counterpart, pitch-black and held a near scary and cold atmosphere to it. "This is what we'll be using."

"I see..." Saber responded, before noticing Konoka's distress. "Have no fear, Master." She calmed her whilst grasping the weapon. "No matter how many times I would stab him, Negi-kun would never die from this blade."

"Huh." Kenichi said, putting his stress to relief. "I guess that's something at least to be happy about." Then he recalled the card that he had been given temporarily. Seeing that the card had a bowman on it, he could already guess the Title for it. "Um... Archer?"

To his call, the same special effects that occurred for Konoka happened to him. Only, to him, came out a beautiful human woman with auburn hair and blue eyes. She was clad in leather armor underneath a beautiful silk robe and adorned with several small magical trinkets, most noticed a circlet on her head. To prove that she was indeed an Archer, she had a powerful double-curved bow made out of polished wood of an unearthly type, the wood itself seeming like iron on appearance, along with the quiver that normally came with a bow. "Whoa..." He could get out, as she took a look at him, then nodded, acknowledging his position as her Master.

"Now then, shall we get going?" Saber asked.

"Not yet." Ashracai replied. "I have one last spell to cast before we head into battle."

"Huh?" Both humans there, minus Archer, looked at the Archmage who first closed his eyes. Suddenly, his second pair of arms grew back inside him, showing that they had only been grown temporarily. Then he opened the eyes again, only they were glowing crimson red. It didn't take long before some drain of magic energy stole away most of Konoka's own mana, as well as a few others with magic energy there felt themselves bereft of magic energy. It all accumulated into the Gith, and he began to glow more bright white himself.

Finally, an explosion, but not one that had shockwaves or big boom. This one wasn't soundless, but it barely made a dent on anything nearby. When the light faded off, it was concentrated inside Ashracai. He was glowing brightly white, save his color changing cloak and his crimson eyes. _"I am ready now."_ He spoke with an otherworldly voice, sounding very emotionless at the time. _"Now let us make haste to where the one we shall assist, lest he succumbs fully to the disease inside him."_

"Understood, Ashracai." Saber acknowledged that and the two Githyanki were off in a speed that Konoka had seen before. Archer stayed behind with the two normal humans, keeping her bow ready as well as anything else she had at her disposal.

_Negi-kun... _Konoka thought to herself, seeing them off.

Not to being unfair, but Setsuna and Rachel were both having major trouble against Negi's Gospel of Darkness, and things weren't getting better. The young mage seemed to get faster and stronger the longer he was trapped in Magia Erebea's clutches and he didn't have any control over himself either. So far, though, he hadn't used his Raiten Taisou yet, but he didn't seem to need it this time. The two birdwomen had enough on their hands keeping him away from his original target, Aristodemus, who for the moment was being carried away by the little blond girl in armor. As much as he wanted to stay and fight himself, the Spartan had only moments ago been crushed by a big rock slide not far from them and it still hurt.

"...Was he this tough last time you tried to fix him!" Rachel shouted as the two of them collided against one another. "I mean, fuck, okay, he's a little out of it now, but no way that a little boost up in power would make him this strong!"

"I don't know!" Setsuna yelled back. "It hasn't manifested since Ostia, so we didn't have much trouble with it!"

"Well, something triggered the shit to come back!" Rachel responded as Negi came straight at them. "And I don't got time to find what that was! Cuz here he comes again!" She jumped up into the air whilst Setsuna whistled across the ground to try another attack on the possessed mage. _"Locos umbrae regnans, Scathach, in manum meum iaculum daemonium cum spinis trias!" _The elder birdwoman cried out, summoning forth three spears of Light around herself, homing in on a specific spot. "_Iaculatio Lucis!"_

The three spears of light slammed down against the ground where Negi was at the moment, and then Setsuna charged in against him, sword drawn. "Shinmeiryuu Ougi... Raimeiken!" her Blade sparkled with lightning as well. However, she made a spot check (1) through the smoke that happened when the spears came down. Negi had narrowly dodged all three of them, and as Setsuna couldn't back out of her charge, he also caught her sword with his left hand. "Oh, crap!" Was all the swordswoman could say, waiting for the inevitable counterattack.

Only, it didn't come. She found herself somewhere else, away from Negi, on a cliff overlooking the whole battlefield. "Wha- where am I? Who-?"

"_We shall take it from here now, young Konoe Setsuna."_ A voice from behind her spoke softly, making her turn around. The most peculiar sight met her: A glowing white tall man in an ever changing cloak and a knight in apparent scale armor with chain-mail underneath. _"I advise that thou retire to where thy companions are and mend their injuries while we handle this situation."_

"Hey, who the fuck are you guys?" Rachel came down on the cliff, landing next to Setsuna. "I don't recall seeing any Special Tasks Group being sent into Mahora."

"We're not Special Tasks Group." The other one spoke, revealing herself female. "We have however, come to handle this."

"Wait a minute." Setsuna said, rising up. "You guys are Githyanki! What are you doing here?"

"_That is not important right now. What is important, is that we secure your companion's safety of life before he is consumed by the wrath inside of him."_ The glowing Gith said serenely. _"Now stand aside and let me and Saber here commence the fray with him."_

Without giving them a chance for an argument, the tall Gith in cloak stepped forward first, followed by the knight. With a few simple gestures in the air and stretching his arms wide, he summoned forth a spear of Light, exactly like those Rachel had used. "Hey, that's mine, you fricking light-bulb!" The demon girl objected. But he didn't pay any heed to her, just took aim at a bewildered Negi and then flung the spear at him. His companion took off to another cliff, above Negi.

Immediately, the possessed mage evaded the light spear, sprinting in another direction, to be away from where the hail of spears were coming from. He occasionally fired back lightning arrows back, but he failed a spot check on what was behind him when he was firing off one. He also failed his dodge check miserably.

"...You. Child." A voice spoke to him harshly, sounding curiously enough both male and female at the same time. But he recognized the male one at least. "You blame and hate the Githyanki for what they have done to you, don't you?" He looked up to see a tall enemy in front of him, wielding a wicked blade. "And now you are just so mad and wrought with hatred at us that you want to fight to kill, right?" He almost instantly recognized the silver scaled eye-patch on the opponent's face.

"_**It's him!"**_ That voice in command cried inside Negi's head. _**"It's Fashtar!"**_

_Fashtar... Fashtar... You... you took her away! Unforgivable, unforgivable... Kill, kill, kill!_

"...Then come and try me, for once. I'll be your opponent now." Fashtar urged him on, grinning widely at seeing Negi in his current state. "Or are you still too wrought with grief over that I took your little Nodoka from you, hmm?"

"_**Fashtar did it! Fashtar did it!"**_ The power screamed within him, urging him to attack his opponent. **_"Kill, kill, kill! We must take her back! We must take her back!"_**

_Take her back... take her back... Give! Her! Back! _With that, the possessed mage charged relentlessly against his opponent, slamming the opposition high into the air.

"I believe he responded to that, Ashracai!" Saber cried over the roar that the demonic forces gave out when they attacked her.

"_Indeed he did. Making him believe that thou were Fashtar, the one who originally stole away his pupil, was a clever strategy." _The Archmage's voice said within her head, while he was flying behind the two combatants, keeping a moderate distance from them. _"Keep the fray as short as you can, lest the magic gain too much of a foothold inside him."_

"Understood." Saber acknowledged him and kept very close to the young mage, but holding him off almost effortlessly with her two-bladed greatsword.

Meanwhile, Setsuna and Rachel decided to aid the others who were taking refuge from the chaotic violence. "Is everyone alright?"

"Setsuna-san!" Asuna exclaimed first happily, before realizing something and then grabbing the swordswoman by the neck. "This is where you've been this whole fricking time!" She demanded of her. "Any idea how Konoka's been worried about you?"

"I didn't mean any harm!" Setsuna tried to defend herself. "I was just trying to do what was best for us all! I thought that if I-"

"That's enough." Aris cut them both off. "We can worry about why Setsuna left later, but right now we got another situation on our hands. Alicia, think you can switch?" He asked his daughter, who complied by opening up her armor and then jumping out, allowing the Spartan to take the seat instead. "We seemed to have some new allies out there handling Negi at the moment, but they could be in need of our help."

"I don't think so, Shishou." Rachel responded. "They seem quite capable of handling themselves against Negi-chan. Especially since that Mage just copied my Light Spears without even chanting. Fu-giii." She pouted slightly.

"Oooookay." Aris replied that, even though this was not the first time Rachel had pouted in front of him. "At any rate," He cleared his throat. "We'll need to step in in the event that something wrong happens to them. Oh, and Setsuna." He caught her attention. "In fact, everyone, once this is over, I'm going to do something you clearly will not like."

"What?" Asuna wanted to know.

"I won't say right now, because you would clearly object to it right away if I did. But remember this: You kids may have beaten me in open combat, but that doesn't mean that you can think that you're in charge. I'm the commander here still, and what I do is a necessity. What I'm going to do is demanded of me, and the least I must do. Don't push your luck with this, you've already gotten your point through regarding Miyazaki."

"Wait, Nodoka-san!" Setsuna exclaimed.

"Not now." Aris cut her off. "For now, let's just watch how it goes."

It was going... evenly, to be honest with you. Saber was definitely able to hurt Negi, but she couldn't get a proper hit on him with her blade, either of them. Ashracai boosted her up with as much magic he could spare to increase her fighting and speed, but it didn't seem enough against the young mage. The knight also held her own well against him, and didn't take any damage. But the elder mage there could not risk firing off offensive spells because of the risk of Saber being hit instead.

"This isn't working!" Saber cried out to her comrade. "We need an open break or something to get through!"

"_Patience." _The Archmage instructed her. _"Just as the Ankheg waits for its prey to come to it, so must we hold until an opening is revealed unto us."_ Saber took that with a bitter swallow. As much as she knew that he was right in that status he was in right now, she also desperately wanted to end this battle as fast as they could. Saving the boy's life depended on it.

"I know that! But we're not hunting Ankhegs for their thick shells right now!" She yelled back, using every trick in the book to avoid being hit by the berserk mage. She also employed all of the offensive tricks to get at him, but only half of them worked. Even so, the speed they were going at each other was near blinding. The combatants' eyes had just adapted to the haste, but few actions even at this speed were almost enough to throw anyone off guard with one slight mistake. _This child is amazing! From what Ashracai told me, this Magia Erebea only increases your power, but not your skills. This boy has seen a lot of dangerous combat up till now, and he's been practicing for something that is far beyond his reach. At this rate, he could actually become a Heroic Spirit, like me. _Her thoughts were cut short when she landed a blow with her armored fist on the possessed boy, only for Negi to turn into Lightning. _It was just a decoy made of lightning?_ She quickly caught him trying an attack from behind her. "Not fast enough!" She scolded him with a kick to his chest, only to have him turned into another decoy. _I was wrong!_ Then she felt a hand on her back, through the mantle and scale armor. _Shit! _Binds made of solid wind embraced her and strapped her down to where she stood, immobilizing her. Negi ignored her then, believing she was no longer a threat and went for the Archmage flying a few meters away from them, only to be swatted away like a fly

"_I shall draw his attention, Saber." _Ashracai said shortly but was cut off by the Knight.

"No! I will keep him here!" Saber said, before hypnotizing the young mage into thinking that he's seeing Fashtar again. "Hey! Is this all you got, brat? Come on and finish it, will you?"

"_Unforgivable..." _Negi uttered so quietly that only Saber and the Archmage picked it up. _"You... you made a mistake coming back here, Fashtar!" _He roared, empowered by the dark magic.

"The stupid one here..." Saber said as he came in closer to try and kill her, moving her head away first before directing it at full speed into him. "...IS YOU!"

_**KLOOOOONG!**_ A... headbutt. She did a headbutt on his forehead. The attack seemed to have effect, since Negi had been flown overhead her, whilst being severly dazed. She was dazed however as well, but less than him. _Ooooo... I'm going to feel that one when I go to sleep again..._ Saber thought to herself before catching up some thoughts of a kind. "What?"

"_**Um... thank you for saving me... Negi-sensei..."**_

"_**Wait. We can't do this. A teacher and a student shouldn't do these things! Onee-chan says that..."**_

"_**Y-yes... that's right, isn't it? ...I'm sorry..."**_

_**What she's saying and what she's doing are completely different!**_

"_**Is someone like me... okay as a p-partner?"**_

"_**EH?"**_

"_**...Somehow I feel like I've been troubling you, Sensei, I'm sorry... So, in return... to be useful to Negi-sensei... I, I'll do my best so please ask whatever you like."**_

"_**I've liked you since the day we met, Negi-sensei! I... I love you, Negi-sensei!"**_

"_**...Ueeeh! I can't do that! I'd be unqualified as a teacher!"**_

"_**That's... that's what I really like about Negi-sensei..."**_

"_**It'll be your homework, okay?"**_

_**A girl I like... a girl I like...**_

_So... that's what this is about..._ Saber thought to herself, seeing all those images from inside the boy's mind, before a voice snapped her back to where she was.

"_Sunburst."_ Ashracai spoke softly in the Draconic language, firing a beam of sunlight right on the possessed mage, sending Negi straight down to the ground, blinded as well. _"Saber? Are thou well now to do battle?"_

"Yes..." Saber replied, breaking loose of the wind bindings effortlessly. "I now know how to end this."

Negi crashed a distance away from them, before getting rapidly up on his feet again. Now smoke seemed to come out of nowhere, surrounding the whole clearing. He couldn't tell what was happening around, but he heard at least three distinctive voices. As much as the thought of blowing the smoke away intrigued him, it seemed a better idea to get into the smoke and investigate them closer. Just to be on the safe side, his Ensis Exsequens blade glowed steadily in his right hand whilst he walked into the smoke.

"_Come now." _The male voice said, emotionless, whilst a minor cloud bank passed Negi's face. _"Thou art getting closer to what you truly yearn for..."_

"Not much to search, now..." The elder female one that was there spoke now to him, making him irritated at where they could be. It made him mad, furious, even ready to lash out at the next-

"...Negi-sensei?" A new voice said behind, but reflex caught him before sense did, making him turn around to attack. "Kyaaa!" That scream stopped him right where he was, before his glowing blade could hit the designated target. "Sensei... it's me..."

Negi's eyes changed back to their normal pupils just as he saw who it was. "...Nodoka...san?" He saw the young bookworm standing in front of him, and she seemed very much alright. No injuries, nothing stood out of the ordinary. It was just Nodoka standing there in front of him in that dress she wore when they went out during the last Mahora Festival.

"...Opening!" Another cried right next to him, brandishing the blade he's been holding off for so long. Before he could react, he had suddenly been impaled on the white glowing blade, as he saw Nodoka fade into smoke as well. "Deep apologies, but this was the only way."

"Hey, the smoke's clearing up!" Asuna called out to the others. "We can see what's going on now."

"Finally! I've been worried to death of what-" Kotarou said first but slowed down when he saw visible forms. "...was... going... on."

_Everybody saw Negi being impaled on a blade held by a Gith warrior, her own face not showing a hint of an emotion about it._

"Okay, that's it." Kotarou said. "I don't care if they came to help, they just stabbed my rival!"

"Don't you mean 'Friend'?" Aris asked, still stuck in the Terminator armor.

"That's what he meant. It's written 'rival' but read 'friend'." Asuna explained.

"Oh. At any rate, before they do something else against him, I'd say we go in there right now and, as you children would say nowadays, whoop their butts. Who's with me?" Aris said, preparing the suit's cannons.

"Hell yeah!" Rachel shouted, readying her Falx.

"You're on!" Kotarou said, going now into full wolfman form.

"Indeed." Setsuna said, having now received back her Yuunagi.

"What are we waiting for!" Asuna demanded to know, getting out her own greatsword.

"Hey~!" Kisara's voice was heard in the background, making them see the Tae Kwondo girl together with Yue, who had gotten off the platform. "We're all over here!"

"What are you doing over there, Nanjou?" Aris yelled back at her.

"All due respect, we can do squat but watch. We also caught up with Konoe and Shirahama, telling us that those Gifs got some sort of plan of saving Negi-bozou." Kisara responded.

"Um, change of plans. I want Setsuna and Asuna with me on this, the rest of you get over to where they are, pronto."

"Got it." Rachel acknowledged the plan. "Come on, kids! Things could go boom, if my hairs standing up straight are correct!" Not giving the others a chance, she pulled away Kotarou and Alicia away from where they are.

"What'd you do that for?" Asuna wanted to know of the Spartan.

"As much as it sounds crazy, it's also very logical. And tactical. If what Nanjou said is true, then we need not worry about Negi's life in danger. If not, well, then Setsuna is gonna jump that Gith Knight and you'll be taking care of that mage." Aris informed her. "What's more, all three of us could outrun the blast if an explosion did happen. Alicia? No. Kotarou? He'd go as well, but not before he's secured Negi, and that would however, take too much time."

"How can you say that?" Asuna demanded to know of him. "Negi is of the royal bloodline, you know!"

"As are you, Asuna." Aris countered. "Furthermore, it is the **bloodline**, not an individual royal member, that I hold loyalty to. As long as either of you lives, I can do my-"

"Hey, look!" Setsuna diverted their attention to where Negi was. The Archmage had climbed with ease up a cliff overlooking the two locked combatants, whilst Negi was somehow starting to glow, with the Knight holding on to the blade, but focusing her eyes on her companion. "What is he doing?"

As soon as the mage jumped from the cliff, seemingly trying to land on the two, things snapped in their heads. "Trying to take Negi's head, it would seem like it." Asuna answered Setsuna, activating her Kankahou. "Let's get them!"

"With you, milady!" Aris shouted in response, getting his Silver Blade out. However, the Knight didn't seem to be willing to have the Archmage jump down on them. When the time was right, and Ashracai seemed at a seemingly high enough place, the warrior changed her grip on the handle and directed the pitch-black blade in a perfect angle...

_To have her own **mage speared** atop the blade..._

"What the?"

"Is that their plan!"

It was at that moment that the warrior noticed them. "...Quick! Get over here, now!" She instructed them, and in a blink, the Spartan had taken all three of them to where she was. "I'll admit that I was not planning for you to interfere, but things needs to go haywire sometimes."

"I'll take that as your way of saying 'improvisation', then." Aris said putting the girls down. "This had better not go boom in our faces."

"It won't." She replied to him. "Just watch for the moment." doing as they were instructed, all three fighters witnessed as while Negi began to glow slightly thanks to the white blade, Ashracai seemed to grow more dark because of the black one. But as the glow from Negi began to fade away, so did the dark magic that enveloped him. Eventually, they saw that Negi turned completely back to normal, unconscious because of the pain, but definitely alive, since he was still breathing. "It's done."

"What is?" Asuna asked, before seeing the Gith Archmage. Now it seemed like he was taken over by the Magia Erebea, as he certainly had the runes all over himself now. What was left of his former glowing white self, were his crimson red eyes and his cloak. "...At this stage, I'd freak over what's going on, but right now, I'm just too tired for it."

"That's convenient." The Gith Warrior said briefly before releasing Negi from the blade and then jamming her companion down onto the ground, releasing four apparent spikes to emerge from the main shaft, and then jammed them into the rock, leaving the Archmage stuck on the ground. "Now we leave." She said, lifting up Negi first, and then she teleported all of them away from the Archmage's body, making them appear at where the others were.

"Of all the things I've learned in my existence, I really should have learned some sort of actual teleportation." Aris said, getting finally out of his suit, and returning back to Alicia and Lochaber. "But why would we get here in such a-"

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

"I thought you said there would be NO explosions!" The Spartan yelled at the Knight once the shockwaves and sounds had ended.

"No." Saber replied to him. "I said that the blade wouldn't cause any explosions. Furthermore, you said by your own words, 'better not go boom in our faces'. Which it did not."

"Set-chan!" Konoka exclaimed happily, ignoring the elders for once and went straight to hug the samurai girl, choking the poor hanyou in the process.

"Wait, this is where she's been all along?" Kazumi asked curiously, being there as well. In fact, everyone who was originally on the platform had come down there to where Kenichi and Konoka was when the Archmage entered the battle. "Odd."

"Indeed." Saber replied before turning to the healer girl. "Master."

"Eh, yes?" Konoka responded first.

"Master?" Everybody save the two Servants asked confused.

"Quick version." Archer spoke up with a heavy unknown accent before grabbing Kenichi's arm and showing the runes. "Saber and I are magical Servants, summoned by mages in order to fight alongside and protect them. Those who called us forth have these runes on their left arms to show that they are Masters."

"Wait, you can speak?" Kenichi asked the bowwoman.

"Aye. Though I preferred not to speak to you unless completely necessary, like now." Archer replied.

"A-hem." Saber caught their attention. "Master, do you have the necklace around your neck, still?" To her response, Konoka revealed the jewel necklace she wore, only now it was blinking sporadically. Fate decided to take a closer look at it.

"Best guess?" He said softly. "A form of soul jar, a phylactery designed to hold the creator's soul inside once they have died. Either that, or a necklace-orientated wand."

"You are correct on the former, good wizard." Saber replied. "Now that we know that Ashracai is safe, we can set our focus elsewhere. I would suggest that we return to some sort of sanctuary and mend our wounds and those of the boy."

"Okay, everyone, back to Castle Leuben Schult." Aris instructed all who were there. "It's been a long day now, and we're all willing to get out of this god-forsaken cold, don't you agree?"

"Oh yeah." Setsuna recalled from earlier. "Aristodemus-san, didn't you say that you would do something that you had to do once this was over?"

Ah yes, thank you for reminding me." Aris said. "Averruncus." He called to the construct.

"Commander." Fate acknowledged the call.

"As much as I don't want to say this in front of Asuna and even Konoka, I'm gonna have to ask you to put Konoe Setsuna under arrest for dereliction of duty and minor desertion." Those words shocked the named girls into a minor shock. "Don't put her in bars, just place her somewhere you know is safe until I reach a verdict on what to do."

"What?" Asuna exclaimed, taking the words out of Konoka's mouth. "You can't do that!"

"Yes, he can, Asuna-san." Setsuna said sternly. "And he has every reason to do so." She said as Fate set magical locks on her forearms. "I won't object to the arrest. It's better that I take it as it is, lest it grows worse."

"...I did say you wouldn't like it." Aris explained the situation to the redhead, before walking on back to the platform, and then everybody followed in tow with an arrested Setsuna and a badly injured and unconscious Negi.

**A/N: By the time you're reading this, my fingers really hurt. Not from writing, but heavy lifting. I do a lot of things whilst unemployed for now, including lifting very heavy stuff, like 800 lbs. bales of compressed hay. Man, those are a bitch to even budge. And I'm mentally exhausted now. It may take a while before I return with more magic and mysterious stuff that is left unexplained.**

**Let me make a confession first: YES! I ripped off the Servant system from Fate/Stay Night! I took Saber, Archer, Berserker and the rest of those dudes and replaced them with other guys. I did it because it seemed so Cool!**

**As much as it pains me to say: Yes, Setsuna is under arrest. And there are very good reasons for it. Don't worry, she will not get a court martial. But arrested was the least I could do without receiving flames. If you don't like it, bite me.'**

**Well, that's it for now. See you about... next month, or so. I guess.**


	37. The Aftermath number 1

**A/N: Here we go again. No action this time (at least nothing big) in this chapter, just walls of text. That happen to make up a few things, so pay attention.**

* * *

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, run this by me one more time, please." Asuna stated to Saber as they were in the castle's infirmary where they had stored Negi. Asuna, Konoka, Haruna, Yue, Yuuna, Ayaka, Eva and Chachamaru were standing in the room where the young teacher slept, on the big bed. And Saber had been trying to explain her own existence to them, for about the seventh time now. "You're actually some hero spirit brought to life spontaneously by simply heeding some magical call?"

Saber sighed for the **sixth** time in front of them. "No. I am a Heroic Spirit, an extraordinary individual that died eons ago as a mortal, but has been brought into the existing plane of living through a magical calling which manifested in those cards that Ashracai was carrying around. I am one of seven specifically chosen Heroic Spirits that have been chosen for this particular process out of practically millions out there. All of us, were chosen for our skill, courage, and our special specialty in combat." She explained to them calmly. "We were not chosen for our race, for that matter."

"I wasn't gonna say that." Asuna complained.

"You were thinking it." Saber countered, shooting the redhead down before she could try again. "Here is how it works." She made light bend together to form illusions of the Servant cards. "There are seven different Servants; Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Berserker, Assassin and Caster. Each of us have a specific role in battle. As I am Saber, I hold the position of main fighter. My job is very much the same as your role is, Kagurazaka Asuna-san. I hold the opposition in melee while my Master supports me from the rear."

"And I take it that Archer's job is to support the Master, in theory a fighter, to stave off ranged opponents or attack flying enemies?" Eva inquired of the Githyanki swordswoman, though she did not seem to have a weapon shown on her.

"It's in that direction." Saber answered. "From what I know, Archer was a brave young woman made an orphan, but raised among strong warriors. She found her bow and quiver when she was in her teenaged years, around yours, I believe, and used it to ferocious skill. Eventually though, she had a terrible injury on her leg, and left unable to use her bow. She turned to magic, studying from a powerful sorcerer. She later lost her life in a cataclysmic event that is known to us as the 'Spellplague'. Magic didn't work for us, and what did exist, turned rampant. Eventually, we regained control over magic, but thousands of magic users had lost their lives by then. On all sides that we knew had magi."

"And what of you, Saber-san?" Ayaka asked the Spirit gently. "Did you perish in that time as well?"

"No." Saber answered immediately. "I myself died millenia before the Spellplague occurred. I do not know how the others came into service, but I myself jumped at the chance to become a Servant, even though there were limitations."

"Wait, how did you get into it?" Haruna asked her.

"I feel curious as to how it turned out as well." Yue added, making the Gith woman sigh yet again.

"I heard once of a place called Mount Celestia that exists for heroes, but I did not enter such a place. All I knew, after I died, was endless darkness. Timeless, infinite, no sight or anything for eternity. Not able to move, not able to feel, nor feel the sweet scent of water in my lungs. Sheer torture for one's immortal soul." Saber told the girls. "But... in that darkness, I heard something at last. There was this voice that called out to me, making me curious about what it wanted. I felt a purpose again, and it asked if I wanted to continue having a purpose. Even though it told me that I would be forced to go into a form of forced labour for it, it did mean that I could feel and see again. I jumped at it. The next thing I knew, was that I found myself in this armor, kneeling to a mage. That mage was Ashracai. I thank him all my existence has to offer to him for setting me free."

"Hu-hu-hu..." Haruna just could not refuse laughing to herself, catching Saber's attention. "Just want to be clear on something. You thank Ashracai-san with all your existence has to offer, right?"

"Yes, that is what I just said." Saber answered the manga-ka.

"Would that also suggest that you and Ashracai are lovers of a sort?" Haruna's question caught the swordswoman off-guard, but then the manga-ka got thrashed by Asuna, Yue and Ayaka.

"Geez, Paru, you don't have to be blunt all the time!" Asuna scolded her.

"And what's with you going on about love and stuff like that?" Ayaka had to ask her. "It's indecent to ask something like that to someone you just met!"

"Haruna, don't go off like that." Yue scolded her as well.

"Heh." Eva could not help but grin. "You girls should talk. Most of you are gunning for Negi's position, anyway." That accusation got them blushing. "Still, it seems like you hit a nerve there with Saber-chan there." She addressed the far more older woman. "Mind telling us, Gith?"

"...He," Saber started nervously. "...He reminds me sometimes of... Zerthimon..." She said slowly. She wasn't blushing, not apparently, but she did seem touchy about the subject.

"Oh, so you did have a lover before." Yuuna exclaimed. "But hey, everyone finds someone special someday."

"It did not end well." Saber cut the basketball player immediately. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound angry. It did not go quite well between me and... Zerthimon," She hesitated saying his name. "when I was alive."

"Oh?" Eva inquired. "How did it go? Tried to kill him over something you couldn't agree on? 'No honey, I can't go out to buy some milk.' 'Oh dear, that means I'll have to kill you.' Slash, slash, slash?"

"I'd be smiling if I found that funny in any way possible." Saber said bitterly. "Do I look like I'm smiling?"

"...Oh." The vampire said, slightly disturbed with how the Gith woman was looking at her.

"Let's just say that I never wanted to see his face ever again and leave it at that." Saber said, making them agree on that without argument. At that time, the door opened to reveal Theodora come barging into the room.

"I came as soon as I heard from Collet." The Hellas princess said, but she stopped when she saw the Githyanki woman. "Eh? Who's that?"

"Long story short, she's under Konoka's control." Asuna explained abruptly. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here because I heard Negi was going to fight the Commander." Theo explained. "What happened?" Asuna explained to her and then she told the full story of what happened afterward. "So... so that's how it went." Theo said almost sadly, looking at the sleeping form of Negi. "Is he okay?"

"As far as we can tell, yes." Konoka noted. "He didn't have any stab wounds on him after what Saber-san did to him, but he's all bruised up. And worst of all, he hasn't woken up even after I healed him up with what I could."

"He's mentally exhausted." Saber explained. "Not surprised, given what was going on inside his mind when I fought him."

"Speaking of which, time for an explanation on what you did to him." Haruna said, gaining their attention onto her.

"I owe you that much at least." Saber said. "Put shortly, we eradicated the dark magic inside him." She told them.

"Wait... what?" Asuna had to make sure.

"...My ears must be starting to go." Eva checked her ears, saying that. "I thought you said you took away the Magia Erebea in him."

"We did." Saber said. "On long terms, the blade I used is specifically designed and enhanced to combat demonic magic. The white blade is set so that it drives out the dark out of whatever it hits, yet it will not harm the victim. On the contrast, the black blade is designed to infuse a target with the dark magic that the white has taken out. Our plan was to take out Magia Erebea out of the boy and infuse Ashracai with it, so that he could destroy it utterly."

"At the cost of his life, in a way of speaking." Eva noted, eyeing the necklace around the healer's neck. "How long are you going to hold on to that thing?"

"I don't mean to be rude, but he did ask me to wear it. I don't know for how long, but until something comes up and it's okay, then I'll take it off." Konoka answered, as the ruby was still beating vigorously.

"So... Negi doesn't have the Magia Erebea inside him any longer?" Asuna asked Saber, who nodded in return.

"Correct." The armored Knight answered her. "I can tell at least that your local vampire has objections against this, but we have reason to do so." Saber continued, reminding them that she too had mind reading capabilities. "Ashracai can tell the potential of a person with magic. That boy has a very bright future ahead of himself. He'll see life, joy, love, experience and good companionship with other great magi and fighters, such as yourself. He'll also see death, warfare, decay and strife with himself. As much as it seems strange to you, we could not let that dark power remain in him if he is to have such a future."

"Then why the hell design a weapon and not some scroll or pointy stick to drive that kind of stuff out of people?" Yuuna demanded to know of her.

"...Ashracai has a clear intolerance for the use of demonic magic." Saber replied, thinking on that one.

"...Oh." The basketball player commented.

"Think badly on us about this if you will, but some action has to be taken for bad, in order for the greater good to thrive." Saber informed them. "Now, I recommend that we leave Negi here for now and let him sleep in peace. He deserves the rest and I doubt that your Commander would just sit idly by while he can get his hands on valuable information."

_**About an Hour later...**_

About an hour later, Setsuna sat stuck next to the coffin in the library. Of all the places Fate placed her, he had to pick the Coffin. Secured under a tight barrier, and even magically shackled to the box didn't improve her chances either.

_Deserter..._ Setsuna thought to herself, remembering the charges Aris had invoked. _Although I wasn't off campus, it could be considered true. I didn't report to them for days, I left my designated place alongside Konoka... _The situation looked rather grim for herself. _Am I going to get court martialled for this?_

_(Somewhere, in the vicinity, somebody was watching, having a bowl of popcorn, by the smell)_

_Oh, damnit, now I'm getting hungry as well..._

Footsteps approached her, making the swordswoman stand up next to the big box, only to see Asuna come to her, flanked by two guys, one blonde haired and dressed in a blue shirt, the other was a bit more... odd. He had a hat with a feather on, in a matching suit. "Asuna-san..." Setsuna could only utter, seeing the redhead, not so happy about seeing her.

"Setsuna." Asuna said briefly. "First of all, before we go into anything, let me introduce you to Takeda Ikki," She gestured to the blonde guy, who gave a brisk salute. "And Kugenin Hibiki, also known as Siegfried or just Sieg." The one with the hat nodded at Setsuna. "We picked them up shortly after you took off."

"...I see." Setsuna could only reply to her.

"Now, that that's over, I'd like to get to the point." Asuna said, and Setsuna realized that she was going to scold her for leaving. "Boys, hold her tight on the arms."

"Got it." Takeda replied, taking Setsuna's left arm.

"Sure." Sieg acknowledged, taking her right arm.

_Okay, being beaten by Asuna was going to hurt a lot..._

The first blow was a classic punch, right on the chest, possibly cracking a rib or two on the raven-haired girl. "That, was for leaving without so much of a note." Asuna told her, sounding bitter as well. Setsuna coughed twice on that, feeling it real good on herself, but kept stable thanks to the guys holding her up.

And then came the knee strike on her gut. "That was making Konoka worry almost to her death. You could at least have thought about her first before taking off." The redhead scolded her, whilst Setsuna tried to get air.

"I need to lie down, I need to lie down." Setsuna told the guys and they gently just plonked her on the floor. "Ooow..." She managed to get out of herself first. "You haven't been skipping on your own Muay Thai practice, Asuna-san." She tried to lighten the mood, but got a kick on the stomach instead.

"And that's for making **me** worried!" Asuna replied back to a curling half-demon. "What were you thinking, leaving like that?" She knelt down to the swordswoman. "And thanks to you on a side note, Konoka has been forcing me to act like some person-pillow to her, since she thought it'd be embarrassing in public to buy one for herself." That got the two guys, at least Takeda off-guard. "Get your mind out of the gutter before I bash it back into you, Ikki." She paused to tell him that, and he stepped back with a fake smile. "The sheer embarrassment it's been on my part. I thank God that Negi has become a heavy sleeper now and is also too busy with keeping Alicia-chan away from sneaking into **his** bed."

_(Whoever was munching on those popcorns, certainly gave a thumbs up on this.)_

"Well," Setsuna coughed as a pause there. "What am I supposed to say? I'm sorry?" She asked, crawling to the side of the coffin. Asuna couldn't say anything at first, just faces passing her own.

"Just... I'm just... No. Just, zip it. Save it for Konoka when she gets here, and that's gonna be worse than what I put you through." Asuna finally said, getting up and starting to walk away. "Come on, guys. Let's give the spouses some time for themselves."

"Er... yes, ma'am." Sieg replied, starting to walk away first.

"Nice meeting you, Setsuna-san." Takeda said nicely to the sitting swordswoman.

"Likewise." Setsuna replied. Being left alone by the coffin, she couldn't help but lean on it because of Asuna's beating. As soon as her head bumped into the box though, something broke and gas of a sort hissed hastily out of the coffin. It sure gave Setsuna a shock, making her step back. It went out as soon as it came, so the danger was immediately over. But it got Setsuna curious as to what was inside, since it seemed okay to open it now. On a practical level, not morally. But she was curious.

She couldn't help but to get up, place her hands on the seemingly open lid and opened it up. _Who? _She thought, looking first at the middle. There was indeed a coffin, otherwise there wouldn't be a body there. _Hold on. I know those legs. This is..._ She gasped, seeing who it was. But before she could look any further, the lock was slammed back down.

"Perhaps I should have placed you elsewhere, Konoe Setsuna." Fate told her, having his hand on the lock. He didn't seem angry, but you couldn't tell with his face. "A minor valve loosened, it seems. Nothing major to worry about." Walking up to where it had busted, Fate also snapped his fingers past Setsuna, and she didn't feel shackled to the box any longer. "You're free to leave for now. And I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about what you saw, understood?"

"Uh... yes." Setsuna wanted to be away from Averruncus as fast as possible, so she walked away from there as fast as she could without running. It didn't take long for her to walk right onto the one thing she didn't want to encounter today: A scolding from Konoka. "K-k-k-k-Kono-chan..." She stammered out of herself, frozen with fear.

_(That person munching popcorns seems to have followed her by the noise.)_

"My deepest apologies, Kono-chan!" Setsuna started, bowing deeply before the healer. "I did not plan fully upon sneaking off like I did. Well, okay, maybe, but I wouldn't have done it without making sure you knew where I took off! I only did it with the best interests for everybody here!" She quickly got out of herself, not looking up to see Konoka's expression. But she was more frightened of this than Asuna's beatings. _Please don't hit me, please don't hit me, please don't hit me! _One part of her shouted inside her whilst another simply said;_ Hold on, I probably deserve this..._

Konoka didn't seem to say anything at first, wondering what to do with her own wife. At first, she just sighed and stepped closer in on the swordswoman. Setsuna let an audible gulp off, seeing the healer so close to herself, and embraced herself for the worst. She found hands instead guiding her torso upwards, and then she was caught in yet another tight hug, though this one seemed more gentle than the one she was given in the Himalayas.

"Secchan... just... tell me next time, okay?" Konoka said sadly, holding Setsuna close, but not looking at her face. "...Baka." She also added at last, making the swordswoman feel a big twinge of guilt on herself.

_(Popcorn-eater had stopped eating for once and gave two thumbs up, seeing the two girls.)_

"Master, may I dispose of the intruder on this moment?" Saber interrupted the two girls, holding someone seemingly invisible to them, but the 'Aargh!' gave it away that Saber wasn't joking with them.

"Hey, let go, you bitch." Rachel said, struggling to get down, but a snap from Setsuna made her stop and the two elder women looked at the raven-haired girl. "Se- Set-chan?"

"You... you..." Setsuna said, with flames gathering up around herself, after getting out of Konoka's grip. "...You..."

"It's a library." Rachel tried to calm her down, having been put down by Saber, but couldn't move out of fear. Saber merely went and opened the main a few meters away. "We're in a library!"

It didn't help her being tossed fast out of there. She was screaming out of fright once she was out of the bookplace, going off into the distance from where the girls saw her. Didn't take long until they heard a klong on the bottle wall.

"A most impressive throw, Lady Setsuna." Saber complimented the raven-haired girl. "I have not seen a throw like that for many centuries."

"...Thank you." Setsuna replied quietly. "I'll admit that I wasn't going to be complimented by a Githyanki."

"I am not Githyanki anymore. I am in some ways dead, and therefore unable to claim some form of heritage of race any longer."

"A-hem." A tanned tall woman with a staff came in through the door. "You don't know me, Setsuna-san, so I'll tell you. I go under the name of Freya, I lead the Valkyrie group here in the castle. The Commander said that he wants to see you in the botanical greenhouse, now. I'm to escort you."

Setsuna felt a big gulp in her throat at the moment, and she felt Konoka cling on to her back. "It's alright." Setsuna assured her. "I don't think it would be a serious punishment, at minimum."

"Best of luck then, I suppose." Saber told her. "I'll look after her whilst you're talking with the Commander."

"Thank you." Setsuna repeated to her and followed Freya out of the library.

_**Back in present day, in the city of Glathk**_

"My most humble apologies." Nodoka said, bowing before Lord Glathk with the two of them alone in his office.

"Hm?" The Githyanki lord merely looked at her first.

"I apologize for the destruction of the port towers when I was sailing off for Zuriith." Nodoka informed him in more detail. "I understand that they were vital to the city defense from the sea. That is why I submit myself to your judgment right now, and await some punishment for what I did to your town."

"...I'll send the bill for the first tower." Glathk answered her, making her just look at him in confusion. "I could throw you in jail for destruction, but you didn't do the destruction on purpose. You were just acting in self-defense of the ship you and your companions were aboard. What's more, those bounty hunters commandeered one of those towers are already working on restoring it and they're gonna pay for the materials it took to fix it." He explained to her calmly.

"I see..." Nodoka took it in.

"For you, however, I have a different task." Glathk got up from his desk. "Since your departure, I've been receiving refugees from local villages from the mountainsides and plains. This isn't something new to me, for I have done so before in the past four hundred years. However, we've just lost contact with a neighboring town to the east. No word, no call for help, zip. I'd call it an organized Hobgoblin raid, but survivors of past attacks describe some form of monstrous humanoid creatures mixed with ogres, undead and even some form of decaying dragons by all accounts."

"I'm failing to see where you are going with this, Glathk-sama." Nodoka said quietly, and Glathk took notice of the honorific.

"Since this is most likely an attack by some upstart sorcerer, or sorcerers, I'm sending a relief force of three-thousand soldiers led by Captain Ishin Saura to the east to find out what it is and eliminate it. I want you to take your forces with them, and once the battle is over, report this to the magocracy here in Samasal. From there, you're free to go wherever you like." The Githyanki lord informed her.

"Understood." Nodoka nodded at him.

"One last thing, though." He caught her attention. "I would prefer not to see you again in this town." He informed her. "I have good reason not to trust humans. They tried to take this city when I was still a young officer and have been trying ever since I was appointed the ruler of this realm. Even though you are different from what I've seen of you, my people still see me as a man opposing humans. I can't go around their backs with the Witch of Man, either." He paused to let her calculate where he was going with this. "However, the appeal in that I'm sending you is your magic. Albeit not much from what spies tell me, it's certainly powerful at least. That is why I'm assigning you and your troops to this relief force, understand?"

"Yes sir." Nodoka acknowledged him and turned to leave immediately.

"...Your men did at least behave here." He informed her when she reached the door. "I don't know what kind of training you put them through, but it's effective. Good work on that, at least. Give my regards to the drill sergeant too, would you?"

Nodoka regarded him with gentle eyes before answering. "...I'll tell him you appreciate what he's done then, Glathk-sama." With that, she left the room and went for the tavern where everybody else waited for her.

_**Back at the greenhouse**_

"Ah... there you are, Setsuna." Aristodemus greeted the young samurai girl. He was dressed in a light robe, with his right arm in a sling and bandaged. He had been given the opportunity to have it healed, but he seemed to have it the way it was. "I was beginning to wonder."

"Asuna-san and Konoka came to see me." Setsuna replied to him, being a bit confused seeing him like that. "Asuna-san gave me a beating, too."

"Ah. That explains a few things." He kindly said. "Now, don't suppose you would care to walk with with an old man in this serenity?" The tone he used was fake, but replicated enough of the 'Old frail man' look that she just couldn't refuse. So, the two went into the greenhouse, and generally admired the vegetation.

"Tell me, have you heard of the Character Alignment system, Setsuna?" Aristodemus asked of the Hanyou after a while in there, looking at a couple of birds.

"...I'm afraid not, Sir." Setsuna answered him as they walked down the lane filled with trees and birds flying about.

"Quick version, then." Aris responded and turned about. "The Character Alignment system is a two-dimensional grid from the role-playing game called _Dungeons & Dragons_. It has two axes, one which measures the 'moral' continuum between good and evil, and another 'ethical' between lawful and chaotic. There is also the idea of 'Neutrality', the side that goes in the middle of these ideas, who are indifferent, committing themselves to balance and all that. By this system, people can been seen as by nine different kinds of alignment: Lawful Good, Neutral or Evil, Neutral Good or Evil, and Chaotic Good, Neutral or Evil."

"Why only two Neutral choices, then?"

"You can't have Neutral Neutral, that one is seen as 'True Neutral'." Aris answered her. "Now, here's the idea: By learning that Lawful Neutral for example, is the school of which you follow orders, respect the law, yet want nothing to do with others and such, you will see where I'm going with this."

"You're saying that I'm just your average soldier if we follow those terms?" Setsuna questioned the elder commander.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Setsuna. I'd say you'd be more of the Lawful Good type. The Lawful Good are the ones who respect the law and order, believing it to be for the benefit of everybody. Honest and benevolent, they generally set themselves within a certain hierarchy of codes of honor and strives to work within the established system to make it fit for everybody, for the good of all. You are a good example of this, because you work within the system and codes set by your fellow members of the Ala Alba, to help make the world a better place, with the ultimate goal of finding Negi's father." Aristodemus explained to the young samurai who took in the information. "However..."

"Somehow, I'd knew you'd said that." Setsuna interrupted, the Spartan waited to hear that sentence and then continued.

"Did you choose to enter Ala Alba because of your own free-will, or because Konoka decided to do so, whilst you were just drafted in because she said it would be fun?" He accused her. "Your loyalty to Konoka as a Shinmeiryuu warrior takes place above your position in Ala Alba, leaving you more Lawful than Good in that opinion. It wouldn't be wrong to call you Lawful Neutral, once you start to think about it."

"Sir, now you've lost me." Setsuna replied to the man. "Does it even matter what alignment I am?"

"I'm getting to the point sooner or later, so bear with me." Aris told her. "Your mission to protect Konoka takes priority first, am I right?"

"...Yes, Sir." Setsuna answered him.

"And when you are faced with the dilemma of whether you should help an injured man, even though you know fully that he's evil, from certain death, do you do so, or leave him to his fate?"

"Do I have to answer that one, Sir?"

"Well, what if Konoka had told you to help him?"

"...Then I would have saved him, I suppose." Setsuna answered that one at least.

"Well, then, you are Lawful Neutral if you have to rely on what Konoka says." Aris informed her. "But this does leave you with two alignments, and we can't have that. So we're chucking the alignment system into the waste bin and get to another point of where I'm getting at."

"...Can I just ask one question?" Setsuna asked him.

"Of course." The Spartan responded kindly.

"What alignment would you be if we followed this system?"

"That, is for you to decide after I tell you of this one. Instead of using _alignments,_ we're going to think of _Allegiances._"

"Difference being?"

"You must be an airhead on this sort of thing, aren't you?" Aris told her bluntly. "Okay, the allegiance idea makes you instead of following a certain faction, without regard to moral or ethical codes getting in the way, allowing you to do whatever you need to do in the faction's name. Therefore, it is entirely possible for people to commit virtually any task imaginable for the faction, as long as it fits the faction's bill."

"I see..." Setsuna didn't really grasp the full idea, but something in that direction at least.

"Since we're the only ones here, I'll use us as examples." Aris explained to her, starting with himself. "There are mainly three levels of Allegiance, namely which one you serve the most. For me, my first and greatest allegiance is to the Greater Good. I work and strive in order to make the whole world a better place. I also put a high value on life on an overall scale, as many people do nowadays. Above all, though, I prize innocents, generally speaking women, children and elderly folk, as well as the soldier who wants to help people instead of killing and following orders."

"And how does that justify you being against the Senate and all?" Setsuna inquired of him.

"Since the Senate doesn't seem to care about how many people will fall, as long as they get what they want for themselves." The Spartan answered her. "Which leads to my second allegiance: Traditions. As much as change is needed to preserve a working society, traditions are needed as well to make sure that people do not forget who they truly are or where they come from. That reflects my position as Grandmaster over the Knights. When Vespertatia was occupied by the Senate of Megalomesembria, our people got a major loss of morale. I simply can't stand idly by while they trample the refugees around, proclaiming the propaganda that Arika, my best student in decades, was the one who destroyed the capital. So, this cuts in with my third one: Monarchy. You get the idea on that one."

"I don't get it."

"It's okay, I didn't explain it fully. Basically, all three allegiances that I hold, allow me to make my master plan to bring them down. That does require a willing and living member of the Royal family. What I want is for them to gain a lot of popular support with the people, who make sure that the high officials stay in power, and therefore form a form of uprising. Now, the situation would leave the Senate with mainly two options: Either acknowledge the lost kingdom of Vespertatia as its own independent state once again and step down, or go to war." Aris explained to the swordswoman.

"And you think that the Senate would just stand idly by while your prodigy to the throne gets more and more support from their people?" Setsuna asked of him.

"I didn't say that." Aris replied almost immediately. "But they are faced with these options. And I learned this action a while back: The objective is not to win, but to eliminate every option the enemy has except the one to **lose.**" Aris informed with a smirk for once.

"...You're gonna coerce them into submitting?"

"As much as the idea of assassinating people is disgusting, the appeal in it is that it works. I pay scores of assassins to stand ready by the Senate to get rid of them when I give the word. The senators are fully aware of my intentions to get rid of them, but they can't do the same trick to me. 'Cause... you know... immortal."

"Yeah. Like you being shot in the throat wasn't a hint enough. And that doesn't count your fight with Negi-sensei just yesterday where you lost thoroughly." Setsuna gestured to him.

"I do not deny that fact." Aris said. "There were over a dozen witnesses who saw that pile of rocks crushing me alive, not including you. But that's not the point. To them, I am a constant threat that cannot be removed, no matter what they try. They even tried to blow my house up once with me in it."

"They did?"

"I'd rather avoid that one." Aris told her. "Thing is, I've got nothing against war on a personal level, but you do need to consider all the amount of innocents that would get stuck in the middle of the conflict. So, would you have preferred that really bad men would be killed cowardly over that millions of good intentioned, decent people would be over a petty thing?"

Setsuna stammered on that answer. "...I suppose I would."

"See? Greater Good. End of story." Aris said. "Now it's your turn."

Setsuna didn't know what to say first to him. Allegiance? Alignments? Factions? What the hell? Oh, might as well go for it. "...I suppose my first allegiance, would be to Konoka-ojousama."

"Good start." Aris praised the girl. "Your greatest allegiance is to serve Konoka, and to protect her as to what Eishun asked of you when you transferred to Mahora. From there, it should be easy to determine what comes second, yes?"

"That would be... 3-A, yes?" Setsuna asked now. "My obligations to them as a fellow classmate?"

"Hooray! You're catching on!"

"Now, what would be my third one be?"

"That one doesn't matter right now." Aris told her. "Now, do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Has this something to do with me having been arrested for dereliction of duty after we healed Negi-sensei?"

"Something like that." The Spartan replied. "What I'm actually saying, is that you **broke **your allegiance to Konoka when you took off like you did, leaving her worried and without so much of a note." Those words struck true into the swordswoman. "Not very cool if you ask me."

"I'm to be punished for this breaking, aren't I?"

"Maybe, but only if you don't see where you went wrong." Aris informed her. "Breaking an allegiance could happen any day, but breaking your most important one is in some way a very serious moral crime. The Catholics take this in a really bad way. "The deepest circle in Hell is for betrayers" goes the saying. Unless one recognizes where you went wrong and betrayed that allegiance, chances are that in the afterlife, you'll be getting a ticket straight to the bottom. Fortunately, though, I'm not your executioner, but your moral judge. So I ask you this: Can you see where you went wrong and betrayed Konoka, or can you not?"

"...May I take my time, Sir?" Setsuna asked him kindly.

"I set up an Atonement shrine a bit ahead of us. Go pray there and you might find the answer." Aris pointed her in a direction to where the shrine was.

Upon approaching it, Setsuna's mind came alive about this. _From the old records of the European lands, the Paladins used Atonement shrines when they felt themselves lost... They're the same as the Shinmeiryuu in Japan, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise. As expected of the Commander, seemingly prepared for anything, it seems... _Setsuna couldn't help but kneel to the foreign shrine and meditate in front of it. _I don't know if this is the proper way, but help me here at least, good shrine..._

* * *

"How do you think she'll do?" Asuna asked the healer as they walked down the lane of pillars, followed closely by Saber. Archer was still with Kenichi, as the beautiful woman could be seen demonstrating her bow skills to Shinpaku.

"I think she'll do fine." Konoka said almost relieved. "Secchan is a strong girl. She'll manage."

"I can tell that you are however, nervous regarding the final outcome of her punishment, Master." Saber had to interrupt their talk, but sensing their disturbance, she left it there.

"Aren't you a bit worried over that woman?" Asuna whispered in Konoka's ear. "I mean, not to rude or anything, but she just creeps me out."

"Asuna, Saber-san is just doing her duty as a protector." Konoka replied. "As much as she's a Githyanki, she hasn't done anything really bad against us. As I am her Master until Ashracai comes back, she's following me around due to him being in here." She referred to the necklace she wore. "Plus, I do not know how to dismiss her."

"Okay..." Asuna said, getting a small distance away from the healer. "I'm just saying-Huh?" She stopped what she was saying to see a speck of light above them, making all three of them stop in their tracks. "What's that?"

"Ah." Saber noted and stepped forward. "They're here at last." As she finished saying that, three more Githyanki showed up, one with a cloak and data slate in hand, another with an assault rifle in hand and third had a big box across his shoulder.

"Okay, where are we now?" The first one asked, looking around before spotting Saber. "Oh, lady Saber. Found another Master?"

"Temporarily." Saber replied and then gestured to Konoka. "This is my current Master. She also has the phylactery." The Knight pointed as well to the ruby around the healer's neck.

"So we're in friendly territory, huh." The first one said.

"Aw man, I wanted to try this thing out." The one holding an assault rifle groaned.

"Is that a Vindicator?" The third one asked him.

"Yeah, it uses that new Mass Effect technology we found." The second replied. "Sweet gun. Rounds aren't as fast as solid bullets, but you can at least eyeball a target with this."

"Can we get on with this?" The first one said and handed the data slate with a pen to Konoka. "Okay to make things short, I need you to sign here." He pointed on the data slate. "Native writing is good, I can write your name in our language, too."

"Um, okay." Konoka responded, confused about what to do, but took the pen anyway and wrote on the bottom line in Kanji her name. "Okay, I'm done." She said, and the Gith took the pen away from her and proceeded to be ready to write down her name in his language. "It's Konoe Konoka."

"Konoka being surname, or?"

"Given name. Konoe is my surname." Konoka answered him and the Gith proceeded to write it down in his own language.

"Okay, last two things to do, is a stamp here," He pointed to a small circular area on the top of the data slate, which Saber filled with a stamp that came from the belt Ashracai had on himself before going boom. "...and a fingerprint signature here." A small blue luminescent space opened, which he gestured for Konoka to put her thumb on, making her identity be revealed to them. "And that's that. We're done. Here you go." The Gith said, having the third one carrying the box put it down. "Just do what lady Saber tells you to do, and things will be tickety-boo."

"Wait, what?" Asuna had to butt in. "What do you mean, tickety-boo? You just popped in here and didn't explain a thing."

"Hey, look here, Bells. I don't get paid to be all informative and being a boring source of talk. I just get paid to deliver the bodies. And we're done here." He told her, turning away from them and taking out a scroll. "And now we're off again."

"Hold on." Saber stopped them getting out of there. "Maybe you should hear what Ashracai has to say to you regarding your profession."

The first one sighed. "Fine. We'll stay and listen to the boss."

"Always old speech with her?" Asuna asked.

"You have no idea." He replied as he and the second Gith opened up part of the box to reveal a tall Githyanki male body, his face at least. This one had been seemingly granted white hair, long and unadorned, whilst its face was a structural masterpiece among Giths. "This seems about... two centuries old, at best." The first one noted.

"Master." Saber caught Konoka's attention. "Your part is to place the ruby on the body, so that it'll perform its part in this."

"Is that it?" Konoka asked of the Knight. "I just place it on him and it's good?"

"This simply must be Necromancy..." Asuna noted, actually poking at the body in the box.

"That is what you shall do." Saber told the healer. Konoka seemed almost reluctant to approach an actual corpse, if it could be called that. Taking off the ruby necklace, the healer held it out above the body's head, whilst it was flashing constantly. All of a sudden, a blinding flash came, making her drop the necklace, right on top of the head, and then the whole area seemed bright with light.

"...Ooooo... that was an interesting experience." A new voice said, coming from the box. "I'd rather not be blown up again. At least not in the next couple of centuries at least."

"Ashracai-san?" Konoka asked gently, catching the Archmage's attention.

"Yes. It is me." Ashracai answered her in his new body. "I seem to be still in the box this time. Where's Uzera?"

"Erm... you called, Mr. Boss?" Uzera, the first one in cloak asked. Getting a gesture to get closer, he did so. And then promptly got a punch that sent him up into the roof.

"I also pay you guys to keep the hair short. I mean," Ashracai pointed out for them. "...I'm not one of those fighters vying for high status among each other. What do you think of me, some death or glory-fellow, or maybe an 'Not the hair' blockhead!"

"See, this is why the insurance was so good when we take the job of delivering the bodies." The third one noted to Uzera, still stuck in the roof.

"No, it's the high risk of alien hostiles in the vicinity that's why the insurance is good." Ashracai said and got a chill down his body. He opened up more of the lid to check. "...You guys forgot to get this body some clothes... didn't you?"

"Not us this time!" The second brought up. "Blame those who maintain the hosts. They just make sure they get fed and be healthy, they're also the ones in charge of getting you clothes."

"Never mind." Ashracai sighed. "I noted that there was a bath here, anyway. I could use one, myself." With that, he was going to teleport.

"Wait, wait, there's one last thing we need to ask!" Asuna stopped him.

"What?"

"How do you dismiss Saber?"

"...Normally, one would say the magic words, but since you don't know them, you just gotta cut off her head. That usually works." With that, he teleported away to the castle's bath. Hopefully it was empty.

"Cut off her head?" Asuna repeated after that the Archmage had disappeared.

"Now we're out of here, before we're trapped in real hostile territory." Uzera told the other two guys, picking up the scroll again. "Teleport!" He utilized and they all disappeared from the three women there.

"Mou, now they got out of here too." Asuna groaned. "Why cut off Saber-san's head? Wouldn't that kill you?"

"No, it would not." Saber replied calmly. "I am already dead, in a way of speaking, and so I cannot be permanently killed. Beheading me only sends me back to a specific plane of existence for about another twenty hours before I can be summoned again." She then bowed to the redhead princess. "It may sound strange to you right now, but I would be honored to be beheaded by you, Princess Asuna."

"Huh?" Asuna recoiled at the Knight addressing her as princess. "How did you know that? I didn't tell you anything about that."

"My people are psionic by nature, and one more thing about Heroic Spirits. The more you speak of their abilities and believe that they are capable of anything, then those Spirits can do such things." Saber informed her. "As a hero to all Githyanki, the sky would be the limit for me. As such, I am very much able to read minds and divulge into a person's past."

"That's horrible." Konoka lamented.

"Ghhnnn... Mou, alright." Asuna gave in and summoned forth her harisen. "Technically speaking, you are a summon, and my artifact can just banish those away with a single blow."

"I see." Saber replied and waited for the blow to come. Asuna took a deep breath first and then swung her harisen around to give the Knight a good smack. It worked. The Githyanki woman faded strangely enough into sakura petals in front of them, before the magic energy from the petals and the tattoo on Konoka's arm formed back into a card, now revealing the swordswoman sleeping in tranquility.

"Whoa..." Asuna said, taking a look at the card. "Say what you want about these Githyanki fellows, but they can make some pretty awesome magic stuff."

"...Yeah." Konoka replied, whilst other classmates came to them wondering what the flash of light was. "They're kinda cool."

* * *

Setsuna found actually tranquility as well in that Atonement shrine, meditating in near silence, save her own breath and the sound of birds singing. The samurai could almost imagine in her head where she had gone wrong. Meeting up with Rachel that night, thinking about leaving in the first place, and even leaving Konoka's side...

_That's it._ She thought and got up from her sitting position. Taking a moment to bow and thank the shrine, she headed back to where the Spartan was.

"Ah... did you found out?" Aris asked her as she approached him.

"I... can see where I went wrong, Commander." Setsuna answered him. Upon that he didn't answer immediately, she continued. "I went wrong when the thought about leaving Earth prematurely to find Nodoka-san, and got confronted by Rachel-san about it." She told him. "She said that I would only be jotted down as an infiltration attempt if I left. That would be my excuse for leaving the others, I believe."

"Yet you lacked the actual stomach to leave Konoka's side." The Spartan accused her and she could only nod.

"What's more, I lacked a few certain 'Skills' according to Rachel-san and she decided to take me on as an apprentice instead. And from there, we lost track of time in the Himalayas."

"And hence why I had you arrested for desertion." Aris completed. "Are you now able to understand that breaking a vow is pretty much unforgivable?"

"I am, Sir." Setsuna answered with pride. "And I assure you, it will not happen again. And I figured out your alignment, should we follow that system."

"Hm?" The Spartan inquired.

"Given both axis, I'd say you are True Neutral. As much as you are willing to commit horrible 'evil' acts, you use them for the purpose of everybody else who has suffered through the years. You have also done genuinely good acts, considering what most people perceive as Good. However, if it is the most logical idea and the best way to preserve a greater innocence, based on what you've seen, you are keen to sacrifice your teammates in the event that it'll lead to a better future for everyone else."

"You reached that conclusion on your own?" Aris asked genuinely shocked at her gathered intelligence.

"Well, I had to go over the Alignment system in my head to think it through. But granted that True Neutral would be directly in the middle, I figured that's where you would fit in." Setsuna answered him meekly.

"Good. Now I can move on to my own verdict regarding your desertion."

"Oh, boy." The raven-haired girl couldn't help but slip.

"Come on. You might have avoided being shunned by Konoka and your own allegiance, but desertion is still a war crime. Thus, you are now under my jurisdiction." Aris informed her.

"...I plead guilty." Setsuna went for the easy route out of this.

"Very well." The Spartan said. "Well, here's your punishment: There has come up a special mission, one that I need some of the best for. In the event that you are one of them, you are assigned to this mission, by me personally. Now, I got some bad news, and I got some good news, and I got some more bad news."

"Erm... bad news, first." Setsuna requested of him.

"I'll take them in order. The bad news is that this is a one-way ticket. There's no turning back until the end of the mission, whether success or failure. You'll be cut off, on your own."

"Great. What's the good news?"

"The good news is that this means you're going to need a decent healer. And with your own little wife having expertise, natural talent and experience in the field, that means she'll on to this as well. I just need to ask her if it's okay." Aris told the raven-haired girl, who let out a breath of relief. "The more bad news is this: Fate Averruncus is in charge."

"...Crap." Setsuna said, being honest.

"Yeah, sucks to be you." The Spartan lamented. "By the way, exactly what was it that Rachel was teaching you in, to begin with?"

"Oh. It was Transmutation and transformation magic, primarily." Setsuna answered him. "She showed me how to change hair color and style without having to use mundane usage and- why are you looking at me like that?"

"Transformation, huh? Well, that could also help with a few issues as well." Aris said.

"Huh?"

"Rachel never told you that she had kids, herself?" He asked her. Once Setsuna put kids and transformation into the same pot, she just froze in spot, having a shocked visage on her face. "Setsuna?" The Spartan asked gently. "Setsuna? Set-chan? Hoooo-hoooo!" He waved his hand in front of her face. "Huh. So much for that court martial..." Without thinking, he pulled out a doodle pen.

_**In Glathk's local tavern**_

"Wahey." Raydan waved the Witch over to their table. "How'd it go with Lord Glathk?"

"A lot better than I expected." Nodoka answered him. "Never wanted to see me in this town again."

"Now that's pretty mild." Rev'keth noted. "Normally, he'd just put humans to death. Guess he saw the bigger picture of what was going on."

"That, I guess..." Nodoka said first. "And he gave us an assignment." She added as well, gaining their attention. "You've seen the refugees out in the streets. And recently a town to the east was attacked. Glathk-sama has ordered us to join up with an army he's sending there to investigate. From there, we're heading to the magocracy here in Samasal."

"Ah, shucks." Jashol lamented. "Those guys got their eyes on me. I would prefer that we avoid that place."

"If you're going to be such a wuss, Jashol," Symon commented on the new member's preference. "Perhaps you should take your chances elsewhere."

"I'd like to make it known by this stage that I'm only in it because both High King Rufus and High Queen Efromm of Druustya told me to." The bodyguard told them.

"Yes, yes." Hina noted down. "Well, this is what we must do for the people out there. So we'd best move out."

"Where's Boris, by the way?" Rev'keth asked the pink-haired girl.

"He went to fetch our stuff. Can't go into battle with protection, can we?" Hina answered him. "The priest should be getting our men as well. We'll move out as soon as Nodoka and I are ready."

"Right." Raydan said. "As much as facing Averruncus seemed great, we might want to face something more to our own level."

_Facing Averruncus wasn't fun._ The Gith knight thought to himself, having an unpleasant look on his face. Around that time, the door opened to reveal the big Russian, carrying a box in his arms. "Ah, Boris. Over here." He waved him over.

"I brought your equipment, Katsura-san, Miyazaki-san." Boris reported, reaching out the box.

"Ah, good." Hina replied and took the box. "You guys wait a moment. We gotta get ready."

"Knock yourselves out." Rev'keth said, reminding them that he had been stuck as their 'babysitter'. The two girls went into an empty room upstairs to change into their armor. "Well, can't complain too much, at least they can fight for themselves."

"Yeah, I noticed as much back in Zuriith-ma." Jashol said. "But how come they need armor?"

"Have you been hunted for so long that you've forgotten the very standard tactic you humans employ?" The Gith said. "If I recall correctly, humans have always worn armor to protect themselves in accordance to the environment and coming situations. And Hinagiku is a tough warrior, whilst her sister needs to learn how to command an army. She can't show up on a battlefield wearing naught but cloth."

"Naught but..." Jashol repeated and all three natives thought of that image, before shaking their heads rapidly. "No, no, no! We can't do that!"

"Nothing but bad things will come out of that!" Symon added.

"What were you guys thinking?" Rev'keth asked the guys. "Besides, if you were thinking in... 'that' alley, then her homeland Japan has a brand for you guys."

"Which is?" Raydan had to ask.

"Lolicon. Loosely translated, you're into underage girls."

_**Castle Leuben Scheult, Nightfall**_

Negi woke up, having a terrible dream. The contents of this dream was (dear readers, I try to keep things rated 'T' here) like that. Plus, he hurt almost everywhere. He cracked his neck for starters and only then did he notice that it was night. The moon was out, by the glow. _Ooof... that really hurt._ Negi thought to himself, trying to get his legs moving. _I can barely recall what happened to me... Wait... did I see Fashtar out there?_ The image of the Githyanki with an eye patch sparkled in his mind yet again and he reeled from that, making him fall out of bed.

"Ow..." He got out, trying to get up. "That really hurt. Eh? Hold on, when did I be this tall?" He had to ask as he suddenly recalled that he could only barely reach the end of the rope holding up the bed curtains without jumping up. Now he could get it with ease. "I need a mirror." He stated, looking around for one. The one at the wall opposite the bed would do.

Taking a look, Negi noticed a lot of things about himself. Most of all, he seemed to have grown up. He wasn't like his fifteen year old looking self, nor did he seem like he was ten again. He seemed more in the middle, around thirteen now. His arms had grown longer, as had his legs. His abdomen had started to mold into the shape he would have when he was going to turn eighteen. His hair hadn't grown any longer, but his face was starting to adjust to this new appearance. "Huh. How long have I been out?"

Deciding that he needed to talk to someone, the young mage went for the door and it revealed Theodora leaning on the window railing, looking out over the view. Not to mention, that nightdress she was wearing caught Negi's eyes longer than he wanted to. _Uh oh. Sudden attack of hormones and pheromones!_ The young mage thought to himself as he just couldn't get his eyes to stop staring at her... bottom. However, the princess noticed him awake and turned his way. "Are you well now... good husband?" She asked him gently, and yet that last one sounded almost, **almost**, seductively.

_Oh, that's right... Theo and I are still married to each other... _"Yes. I'm fine now, Theo." He replied to her kindly, trying for a smile. She didn't seem very convinced.

"Why are you smiling at me?" She pouted at him. "Shouldn't you spare that for when Nodoka-chan comes back into your arms?" She inquired instead.

"Huh?" Negi reeled back at that question. "Why are you asking me that out of the blue?"

"I managed to get a talk with someone regarding your little freak out earlier." Theo explained to him. "Apparently to them, you snapped out of it because you seem to have taken your time in actually developing a crush."

"Eeeeehhh!" The young mage exclaimed. "What do you mean, I've developed a crush!"

"Apparently, you have." Theo calmed down herself. "Your determination to save Nodoka-chan seems to have developed into some form of saving her out of love of some kind. Ghnn, that was what they told me, anyhow." She informed him. "That's why your Dark Magic went berserk: Because you wanted her back."

"That's …. that's why I went berserk?" Negi asked to know.

"I wasn't there when it happened, so I only know second-hand. Haruna thought immediately upon hearing that you've gone all Yandere or something like that. Doesn't seem far off." Theo said, leaving Negi speechless and unable to answer. "Mou, anyway, you seem okay now. I'm sure the old man would want to see you now. He's in the library right now, I think." She told him. "Go on, I'll be fine." She shoved him away, sending Negi walking away towards the library. Once he had passed the corner, she could finally let herself think. _What the hell happened to him in there? I could practically smell those pheromones!_ And she was blushing like mad. But a simple twitch somewhere caught her angry mode again.

Around 1.8 seconds later, she had assaulted a disguised Nijima camouflaged as the wall, and had a longsword ready at his throat. "I got good ears, myself, Nijima! Not to mention I got full authorization to kill you myself should you mention this to anyone!" She informed.

"Understood, your Majesty..." Nijima got out of himself weakly. She didn't consider withdrawing her blade from him, just yet.

* * *

Meanwhile, Negi walked slowly to the library, taking in the area around him. He saw some of the Valkyrie girls notice him and waved at him, and he waved back at them. Upon seeing Chachamaru, he stopped briefly, but tried to walk past her quietly. Didn't work. She had glomped him out of concern and hugged him tightly. Afterward, after discussing things with her, the robot girl let him go. But he wasn't out of her sights just yet. She was definitely going to try something on him sooner or later.

"So you decided to wake up now, boya?" Eva asked of him, standing in his way. "If you can't answer, then don't. It's all the same to me." She said, and got close to him. "Mm-hmm... not bad. I like what I see on you, boya. Maybe losing that dark magic inside wasn't such a bad idea after all." She caught him off-guard there. "Something about demonic magic being really bad for you. I don't mind, myself, but what's done is done. Can't change the past even if you wanted to, now." That made him remember the broken Cassiopeia watch he still had. "Now you listen well, boya: Some mages has been forced to give up some of their power in order to save some big thing important to either them or the world itself. This is no different from them, or even your own mother when she sacrificed her own country to save the Magic World. But even so, even when covered with mud..."

"One must keep going forward." Negi finished for her. "Yes... this is not different than when others have faced big problems..."

"You get it, now?" Eva said, gaining his attention. "To live life like you mean it, is all mortals need, ever. Nothing's real until it's gone." She said, not looking at him at the moment.

Negi turned to face her and bowed deeply in front of her. "Thank you very much, Master. I will think deeply on those words." He said.

"...Go on, go see the old Greek, boya. I've given enough wisdom for one night, now." Eva replied and started to walk away. "Ahh, I feel like I want a drink..."

Leaving his master to her own business, Negi proceeded to the library. Once there, he searched high and low, okay not really, but he looked for where the Spartan was. He found him by a window as well, looking at the moon. He had a sling on him and a bandaged arm in it. "Um... Aristodemus-san?" Negi asked gently, getting the old man's attention.

"Oh... you're awake, Negi." Aris answered softly. There was no malice in his voice this time, he didn't seem like the vicious commander he used to be. A pregnant silence fell over them both, the two not knowing what to say to each other after what happened. "Um..." Both said at the same time, suddenly feeling very stupid as well. "Eh... you first, Negi." Aris relented and gave the word to the young man.

"I... I'm sorry." Negi started off. "I was being too selfish of myself, opposing the idea. I was just following my pledge to protect all of my students. I just couldn't stand by and let something like this happen without my consent. And furthermore, I gave Nodoka-san a vow that I would do my best to protect her from harm. I already failed once when Fashtar came and took her. I couldn't afford to let it happen again."

_He's just screaming Neutral Good about himself..._ Aris thought to himself. "I'm... sorry as well." He said gently as well. "I did tell you that I was in a delicate position, and I have to maintain all sides happy. When this offer came by and jumped into my lap, so to speak, I forgot how important Miyazaki was to you at the moment. Morally speaking, I was a complete and utter bastard about it. But... what choice did I have at the time? We were in need of back up, in one way or another. It struck me that if the mundane governments wouldn't give me the aid we needed, then these Githyanki, not being part of the enemy we are facing, would."

"So... we were both wrong, in a way." Negi tried to ease the mood. "Me in the practical sense..."

"And me in the moral sense." The Spartan finished. "However, I must act on this, and they did say to 'strike her down'. As such, I've decided to actually allow a team to go to the Imperium's capital world." He said, making Negi surprised. "Now, now, Negi. I assure you this. They want us to 'strike her down', but to my ears, it means that they don't want her to get to whatever it is they have in their possession. Meaning simply..."

"...This is our chance to get her back here." Negi realized. "God, how could I have missed that option?" He berated himself.

"Took me a while to reach that conclusion as well." The Spartan commented as well. "I'll inform our new found allies of this. However, I can't let you go on this mission, Negi."

"Huh?"

"A few reasons, really. First of all, there is the chance that you would be spotted by the Imperium as they call themselves, and therefore they could certainly call in the big guns which I'm fairly certain they have for magi like you. No offense. Secondly, you're exhausted and bruised up. Even with Konoka patching you up, we don't know for certain that things will have worked out fully. And finally, you buried me alive, you little- Never mind." He tried. "Thing is, other sub-commanders are going to demand some form of punishment for this insubordination. I'm afraid I must oblige with them."

"I understand." Negi said, giving in.

"Very well. Negi Springfield, for medical reasons and for insubordination, you are hereby discharged from duty. Report to me in a week, real time that is, and I'll have you reinstated into the team. For now, take your time to rest. You need it." Aris informed him.

"...Could you excuse me? I need to go somewhere." Negi told him and the Commander nodded, giving him permission to leave.

_**Some time later, when everyone else was asleep**_

Sitting on the great cliff has always given him peace and quiet. Negi chose this spot for when they concluded about the 'Mourning time' for him so that he could focus better. He could see everything from there, what was going on in the courtyard, who was entering the resort and leaving, and the birds flying about in here. They tended to accompany him up on the cliff edge.

_Discharged, huh?_ Negi thought to himself, wearing only his cloak and Chinese clothing. _It doesn't mean much to me, but not able to save Nodoka-san... that's where the pain is. _Looking up at the moon, he could see for a moment the bookworm's smile there, and that image seemed to bring him pain. _Why? It's odd... whenever I think of her now, I can't stop... and my heart is... jumping like crazy when I begin to recall the times we've spent together... what does it mean?_

"You know..." A new voice behind him said, the rustle of cloth was heard as well in the wind. "We didn't get a chance to actually talk, with everything else going on." Turning around, the young mage saw a new and tall Githyanki, this one with white hair, but the voice tone gave him away at least.

"Ashracai...-san?" Negi asked to be sure. The Gith merely smiled at him.

"Yes, it is me." Ashracai answered him. He did not have his color changing cloak any longer, so he had taken one of Earth's magi cloak "Long story, why I'm a new body." He said, walking up to where Negi sat and took his own seat next to the young man. "I don't think I would have the time to explain it fully in just one night."

"I see..." Negi replied and looked out over the view again. "...Hey, I got a question... Konoka-san said that you're the one looking after Nodoka-san... I just want to know... is she doing alright back there?"

"Back on Tu'narath?" Ashracai asked. "Oh, she's doing great. I sent her up to the surface so she could live a simple life there." He told her. _Best keep the war with Ifrith a secret from him for now... might tell him later if it becomes needed._ "I figured that she could try the life style of an adventurer there until she can be taken home." Technically, that wasn't a lie.

"Huh..." Negi sighed. "And here I thought you'd be taking her under your wing to train..."

"Oh, I've given that idea some thought myself." Ashracai replied to him. "We did bring her a lot of magical instruction books so she could learn them on her own for the time being. Once I think she's gained enough experience being with Hinagiku and Boris in the big world, then perhaps I would take her on as a full-time apprentice. Just... not yet. I figured that she could learn more as well from how we live back home."

"Really?" Negi inquired of the alien. "Your homeworld must be wonderful, then, in comparison to how Earth is..."

"We've gone that road before. We didn't want to screw it up again." Ashracai informed him. "But Earth doesn't seem to be such a bad place, either. Okay, it's populated by humans, but nothing's perfect."

Negi handed that one to him. He knew from experience himself that humans weren't the nicest of species. This coming from a human to begin with was something. "But once you see the rest of the world, it's not too bad, is it?"

"...No." The Archmage answered him. "It's not a bad place. Makes me understand why you want to fight for it." After that, there was silence between the two magic users. Neither knew how to continue. "So, uh..." Ashracai tried again to break the ice. "...how have you been holding up since... Nodoka got taken away?"

"It's... been decent, if I have to put it lightly." Negi answered him. "I mean, I've learned a lot more than I originally suspected. Not of the Githyanki, as you guys have been impossible to track down, but of my own past. I never really got to know my parents, but I learned of my own mother only last year and there's a hoop of things I didn't know about her even then. Then came Aristodemus-san, and I learned that there was more to my family than I expected. And I don't think I'll be able to look at the girls the same way ever again."

"It happens." Ashracai commented. "Magic does have a tendency to sometimes screw up basic biology at times. But how's your mental health?"

"A lot is happening so fast. I don't know how to handle all these new hormones coming up to me. Maybe it's all in my head, I don't know this time, truly. But hearing the word love again makes my head going rapidly. It was no secret to me that Nodoka-san was in love with me, she said it out loud to me. I'll admit that she's not the only one. I also have Ako-san, Makie-san, well, let's say a few. But..." He paused there to gather his wits and words. "I don't think I would be able to reply to them, now. I got loads to worry about, so much that I doubt I would find the time. What's more, I don't know if I would be worthy of such affection."

"Hm?"

"I can't really think of myself as someone spectacular, and all of the girls are really nice to me. Almost too nice. But awful things keep happening to me, and I don't want to see any of them in danger. And now this is happening, an invasion of our home from magical extraterrestials, bent on conquest. So I can't see myself with any of them, because I don't want to see them hurt, or worse..."

"Hmm... that's a very basic and simple answer." Ashracai commented. "I need to think that one over."

"Really? You can see my point of view."

"Just thought it over and I have come up with an answer." The Githyanki replied immediately and when Negi wondered what it was, he promptly received a hard blow to the head. "Are you an utter moron?"

"Huh!" Negi exclaimed.

"Not worthy of their affection, you say." Ashracai scolded him. "That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard since the idea of charging in broad daylight over a minefield. And that was a couple of millenia ago, mind you."

"...I don't get the message." Negi replied meekly.

"Look, young man, you are still a child, in a few perspectives. And when Nodoka and I did have our chats, when you came up as a topic, good Gods, that girl could talk my ears off on how brilliant and brave you are. But right now, I'm wondering if it was just all horsecrap. Because you're generally acting like a complete moron."

"Eh? She said that!" Negi exclaimed.

"Yes she did. And believe me, I couldn't help but be a bit admired of such raw power from such a young age. I figured it would be from your blood, much like my kind and our sorcerers. But mentally, you seem to have developed the flaw in thinking that everything has a reason for happening. Let me tell you this: You're wrong. Yes, there may be reasons, but not for reasons that you think have happened to you. Those were just the schemes and plotting of Man. Furthermore, don't undermine your own beliefs and values simply of something absolutely wonderful is right next to you. If you just choose to join a dance, even though you don't know all the steps, it doesn't matter to the other dancers. Do you think a person is worth based on what he or she builds, or buys? You can't judge one from the eyes of mere mortals, like ourselves. Look at someone through the eyes of Heaven or whatever it is you call it, and you'll see the true worth of a person." Ashracai told him. "Oh, Tarong All-mighty, here I am, discussing theology with a kid... I just hope Rad'na doesn't get a catch of this..."

"Huh..." Negi got out of himself, thinking over the Archmage had said. "I never really thought of it that way..." He stifled a yawn just then.

"One must always try new paths of life linked to the path one is destined to eventually take." Ashracai said, taking a deep breath. "It's probably not my place to say this, but when someone has a specific desire of say, 'mating' with someone else, for example, they do it because of a special reason. In this case, I think the reason is 'love'. A most peculiar emotion for some. In that she has love for you, and now with you growing up rapidly, I suppose that love is now starting to take a hold of yourself, even it is unnoticed right now. It took someone to tell you that it was happening. My advice is that you take your time in finding out what it means, and try out a few with your mate, even if she is accidental-" He stopped when he felt a bump on his arm, noticing that Negi had fallen asleep, and leaned on him.

For some reason, he couldn't help but smile. "...Humans sure sleep a lot." He picked up the young boy in his arms and teleported him to a room where he could sleep. Though he did mind to pick the room of one of Negi's partners.

**

* * *

**

A/N: Finally! I'm done! This took me a while to do. Had to go through a lot. Now, it be time for NOTES!

- I didn't like the idea of Negi using Magia Erebea when the bad effects really showed up, so I got it out of the way. Plus, I had already given him something special so it needed to be leveled out so he doesn't get too powerful. And this is months after Ostia, I told you that before, therefore it was reasonable for me to do this. Plus, it wasn't complete in the manga when he had mastered it so far into the story.

** -I took the system from Fate/ Stay Night as I confessed during the previous chapter, and I filled the positions with characters from various places. To help easing the confusion, I will now tell you who is who in the Servant system. I do not own any of these following characters: Saber: (Hinted with facts about herself. Easter egg, really). Archer: Cattie-brie (Salvatore's Drizzt Do'urden series) Lancer: Judith (Tales of Vesperia). Berserker: Kharn the Betrayer (40K). Rider: Innovindil (Drizzt Do'urden series). Caster: Eldrad Ulthran (40K). Assassin: Artemis Entreri (Salvatore's work again)**

**-I'm also using background discussions here, as mentioned with Theo's talk to Negi near the ending. For those who doesn't understand, she had a talk with Archer regarding Negi's berserk time as to why it was triggered.**

**-On that point, Love as an emotion is flexible. It's difficult to pinpoint, really. It's wonderful at first, but as Wynne from Dragon Age: Origins stated: "Love is ultimately selfish." I was THIS close to using it in the last chapter. Therefore, it can be perceived as a negative emotion at times. My opinion though and not proven, (as far as I've checked) but it is worth considering.**

**And uh... that's it for now. Went a lot faster than I expected.**


	38. Take off

**A/N: This will probably be the last chapter of the Flashbacks. This whole time on Earth, has been happening a few days before Fate showed up on Tu'narath, in case you didn't know, or were confused. I hope the opposite, at least.**

* * *

"Okay, despite a few setbacks and arguments regarding this, I've come to a conclusion." Aristodemus announced to everyone in the castle, as all the girls, Shinpaku and associates of the military operations had gathered together in the hall of the castle. Ashracai had hidden himself, since not everyone knew of his presence. A few of the servants there as well had come to provide with boards, instructions and general drinks and refreshments. "This mission to travel to the Githyanki homeworld is approved." This announcement caused chatter among everyone at first, forcing him to continue in the midst of it. "Force Commander Averruncus will be in charge." The Spartan said, having the white-haired construct rise up and on expectation walked up to stand beside the Spartan. "Are there any questions before we continue?"

"I have, Sir." Kenichi raised his hand first to make his presence known to the crowd. "Since this is according to your words, a 'One way ticket', who is coming along?"

"That will be for my decision to make." Fate answered him. "I have already made a few key selections, but I'm afraid I can't guarantee someone from every group."

"Who is decided to go, however, is another thing." Aristodemus continued. "Due to recent events and as punishment for desertion, Konoe Setsuna is assigned to the strike team. Along with this, I have in my suspicion that Konoe Konoka will also come along as the team's designated healer."

"I intend to." Konoka replied almost immediately. "No way I'm letting Set-chan out of my sights again." There were a few that actually chuckled because of that.

"Of that, I have no doubt." Aris commented. "Anyone else?"

"I got one, Oyaji." Asuna said, raising her hand. "How come Negi can't come along on this?"

The Spartan actually paused for a moment, knowing that he would be in for more pain if he told the truth. Ah, heck, better run with it. "...Negi... has been discharged from duty, due to medical reasons and insubordination." He told them, and half the place went in uproar. "Look, I'm sorry it turned out that way, but I got more unit 'cells' to deal with than the one in front of me. News of the insubordination reached their ears and they called for an immediate discharge. Some even demanded execution. I got half a mind to pay those guys a visit, personally."

"Even execution?" Asuna repeated the word. "Why, I oughta-" She stopped herself there.

"Hence why I'm going there. I'm going to remind them that I'm the one in charge, not them." The Spartan informed them. "Negi doesn't have any objections against this act. But I'm afraid that it also means he's forbidden to train here for the coming week."

"It's true." Negi confirmed those words, leaning on a bookshelf. "I can live with it, though. It's only a week until I'm reinstated."

"But, what are you going to do during that time?" Ukita inquired. "With the rest of us around training, resisting doing it yourself could be difficult."

"...Yeah, about that..." Aris said, scratching his chin. "I got a minor thing for him to do during the week. Hope you don't mind that, Negi."

"No, I don't." Negi responded nicely, unaware of what was going to come.

"Well then, I'm going on this mission." Asuna announced. "I'm going to represent Negi on this, and I will not take a no, even from you, Oyaji." She told the old man. "Besides, you only need one of us to fulfill your plans, don't you?"

"...That's not really... what I had in mind, Asuna..." Aris groaned. "And I can tell when someone is joking. Even so, why do you want to go?"

"Not letting Setsuna out of my sights again as well, and someone's gotta make sure that Fate doesn't overstep the boundaries." The redhead replied. "We're doing this to get Honya-chan back, aren't we?"

"...You could say that, yes." Aris replied.

"Well, then, it's decided. I'm going on this and you can't stop me." Asuna told him.

"Her Magic Cancel would come in handy in case we encountered enemy magi, Commander." Fate put up the argument. "Not to mention her artifact able to blow their summoned beings."

"I get the idea, Averruncus. She can come along." The Spartan said, giving in. "Anyone else care to sign up on the spot?"

"I'll be going, Sir." Yue immediately responded rising up.

"So do I." Haruna did likewise. "We're Nodoka's best friends in the whole world, and now we got a chance to get her back here. Who's to stop us?" Nobody objected to that.

"...Right, if anyone else wants to sign up," Aris said as nobody else had after a while. "Come talk to Averruncus before the day is out, and he might consider it. Dismissed." He told them, having everybody get up from their seats and talk with one another. "Negi? Theo? Can I see you two in my own office here, please?"

_**Once there**_

"...Vacation?" Negi repeated the word.

"Yes." Aris confirmed for him. "Whilst you children were asleep I took a moment to talk to the dean and a few other teachers here, including Nitta-sensei. It was agreed upon by all parties that you need a break. Hence why this vacation."

"And the reason I was called here is because?" Theo inquired of him.

"Well, that's the dang thing, really." Aris answered her. "Maybe you should take up law school once this is over." He said, whilst producing a letter to her. "This was given to me by your father back in Arcadia before we left for Mahora. He said that you should follow what it says, even if it's outrageous."

Theo took the letter from the Spartan and began to read it, after she opened it. At first, the letter was addressed directly to Negi, but the princess took Aris' gesture of handing it to her first as a means to letting her know first what was to come. But as she read on, she did not like what she saw in the Latin handwriting. She would have thought it to be some sort of joke at first, if it weren't for the **official** personal seal of her own father. When she finished, she had a near horrified expression on her face and dropped the letter to the floor, so that Negi could take a look at it. "I can't believe it. I just can't believe it." She said quietly.

"Master Negi Springfield," Negi began reading aloud in English for once. "Deeta, deeta, deeta, married to my daughter Theodora..." He continued, skipping a few sentences. "... divorced as soon as possible but the law... for a full year before it can take place... must admit I have neglected to change in my time as the current emperor... request you two children to go on your..." He stopped there, checking the word for any spelling mistakes on it, but found it flawless. "Martialus, Emperor of Hellas." He finished, folding the letter again.

"Our what!" Theo demanded to know. "If that piece of paper didn't have Papa's signature and personal seal, I'd take this as a sick joke!" She was certainly livid now.

"And it's requested by your **dad**!" Aris countered. "As much as I don't like it either, it's all in the laws of your people, Theo. There's pretty much nothing I can do at this time, my hands are tied." He tried to explain. "No matter how much influence I have back in Hellas, it's not enough to suddenly go change the marital laws regarding divorce and prima noctris."

"But a honeymoon? With... with..." Theo looked at Negi, who didn't seem happy about this as well. "Okay, I realize now that Negi is prime material for breeding and such, but he's frickin' ten! A **kid**, Stratz-san!" She even invoked that old nickname she invented for him since 'Strategou' was too hard the first time she heard it. "I can't do it with someone who's ten!"

"Isn't that what you are as well, Theo?" He asked her bluntly, making her reel back in shock.

"That's in Hellas, you dimwit!" Theo practically screamed at the old man. "I'm thirty in human years! No matter how you look at it, it's gotta be a crime, even here in Japan!"

"Which is why you'll be going to Spain." Aris countered having the same monotone to himself at the moment. "I doubt some hot spring hotel in the Japanese countryside is going to cut it with this. Hence, you'll be going to Marbella, in southern Spain. I got a nice villa on La Zagaleta Hills you could use whilst staying for the week."

"Why Spain?"

"...It's the most legal as I could get, really." Aristodemus added after a while. "It's only for a week, and we might actually accomplish this without you two, what's the term... make a homerun." That earned him a rightly deserved punch in the face from a livid princess. Naturally, he fell over like a brick.

"Geez..." Theo said, turning around to head for the door. "And to think I hoped to marry someone I would fall in love with..."

"There wouldn't be any need for you to do it..." Aris tried to explain with a broken nose. Getting up, he explained the full idea. "All your dad is expecting is that you two go on this honeymoon, so I'm sending you to Spain under the pretense. All you had to do is go to Marbella, spend some time chatting together and having fun, come home, tell Marti you two gone and done it, so we can get the divorce over and your chastises will be safe."

"...So we won't have do it?" Theo asked him.

"Pretty much it." Aris said.

"YES!" A voice outside the door shouted in happiness, but all three heard the girl. Theo went for the door and prepared to open it. "Crap." The voice outside said, as the girl realized what was going to happen. The door revealed a few of Negi's students, namely Madoka, Misa, Sakurako, Chisame, Asakura and Makie. "Um... we can explain."

"I'm sure you can." Aris replied. "But my fair guess would be that you were deeply concerned about Negi, or more importantly, his pride as a bachelor. Either that or you girls hope to be the first to get his chastity."

"Hey, that's a bit uncalled for, don't you think?" Makie tried to object in their defense.

"I said it was a guess." The old man countered. "Anyway, what were you going to explain why you were eavesdropping on my door?"

"We... heard a mention about... Marbella...?" Misa tried to explain.

"Yes. I did mention the name of Spain's greatest party town, filled with other British people living there, in a country where the age of consent is thirteen and Negi certainly has the mentality and willpower to match an adult. At times. Not to mention that my villa is in a well secure spot and isolated, so they could have all the time to themselves if they wanted." Aris commented. "Don't tell me that you girls want to go, too?"

"Well, we wouldn't mind, really." Sakurako responded to that. "But, wouldn't it be a bit too much to cost?"

The Spartan blinked twice at her. "...I can cover expenses. But I'm not sure if you guys want to go there as well. I mean, wouldn't that be suspicious too? If two teachers brought along a group of students as well?"

"We'll think of something." Misa tried to cover it.

"No, most of us should be staying." Chisame covered for them. "We'd probably be just fooling around, shopping at huge money losses."

"But that's the purpose of most people when they go to Marbella." Aris explained. "You can buy stuff you don't normally find in your own country. But, your opinion is respected, at least. No way Kono-kun would allow this. For Negi and Theo, yes, but a group of students as well? No, I don't think so."

"Wait, I got something." Kazumi said, eventually. "Given that this little mission could take a while, shouldn't we at least prepare to make our exams? We don't want to end up last place, really."

"...You sure you want the exams that early?" Negi asked them. "You haven't even had time to study for them properly."

"Yeah, but now's better than later with several of us away on some alien planet. Plus, we've already taken yet another nosedive with Miyazaki gone." Chisame explained. "Even with that much behind it, we don't want to finish our last year in middle school in last place."

"...You make an excellent point." Aris said. "I'll talk to the dean, whilst you prepare. In the meantime, you girls prepare yourself. And as for you two," He turned his attention to Misa and Madoka. "Since I recall that one of you cried out 'Yes' over something, and I can't figure out which one, I'll have to ask you two to pack Negi's bags for starters. Is that okay?"

"Geh..." Both cheerleaders started in response, but they regained their composure. "...Yeah, we can do that." Madoka replied for them and the girls prepared to leave. Only the paparazzi stayed behind.

"You're a really nice guy, aren't you, Strategou-san?" She asked him. "You're not being too harsh on us, and you planned ahead to not make it look conspicuous, regarding Negi-kun's little honeymoon."

"Bah." Aris scoffed. "I just happen to give a damn about humanity despite its well-deserved rep as the most ruthless of species when it comes to relations with others. And I care because there is always this **one** little golden nugget in the desert sand that could prove it all wrong. Furthermore, you guys have yet to do anything that deserves punishment of the level you're thinking of, Asakura-san."

"...I think now would be a good time to leave, girls." Negi tried to get them to leave the room as well.

Looking above them, a certain archmage held up some kind of cellphone, or something very similar to it, and activated it through a rune setting. "Is this the private channel of Sukh'an?" He asked the receiver in his own language. "Yes, I'll wait." After a short while, he received another voice through it. "Ah, Sukh'an. I have a special assignment for you. One that I hope you'll accomplish excellently for the prize I'm about to tell you..."

_**Whilst packing**_

"Bit of a real spot of danger, Negi-kun was in." Misa said as she and Madoka were packing the young magi's bags in his room.

"Yeah." Madoka responded almost bland. There was a lot on her mind at the moment.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Misa asked her. "Worried about him?"

"...Yeah." Madoka replied after a while. "I mean... shouldn't you? You're the one of us cheers gunning for him the most." She asked the purple-haired cheerleader.

"I try not to think too much on it." Misa replied. "Sure, I knew the risks of magic when I first enrolled to become a mage like the others, but since it's Negi-kun, he'll get through. As always, no doubt."

"...Shouldn't you be more worried then, that we are actually packing his bags for his honeymoon?" Madoka inquired.

"...I try not to think too much on it." Misa said, seeming a bit more distressed now. "But now you mention it... I can't stop thinking about it."

"Vivid pictures coming to your head again?" Madoka asked her.

"More like **virile** ones." Misa replied, shuddering like crazy. "I mean, take a look at Theo-hime. You don't find a body like that, anywhere. Okay, Chizuru-san could give a go at comparison, but Theo could blow away any competition. I mean, **damn**!"

"...And you think just because she has measurements men would kill for, and Negi-kun now has the body of an apparent thirteen year old, he's gonna go for it?"

"I should never have teased him that one time last year!" Misa now wailed in despair, on her knees by the bedside.

"Wait, when was that?" Madoka asked, but got no answer from her cheerleader friend. "...Hey, Misa. You're thinking too much on this. It's only for a week and Negi-kun and Theo-hime are not even in love with each other. What are the odds of them having sex on this vacation?"

"How do you know?"

How do **you**?" Madoka countered. "Okay, we may also be married to each other, but that doesn't mean that we're in love with each other."

"...Wait, what does that mean?" Misa made a turn about and asked her 'wife' that, leaving Madoka confused. "What's to say that we're not in love? We're friends, sure, but what if we somehow fell in love at some point and it kinda broke loose back in Arcadia?"

"...Hey, Rachel-san got careless and got us all drunk." Madoka countered, finally getting what Misa was talking about. "Someone must've brought up the subject of getting married, and we just... went ahead of ourselves to give it a try."

"Why are you trying to be so defensive?" Misa asked her.

"I know for a fact that we're both straight. We didn't even intend to get married to begin with." Madoka said. "I've never even had lecherous thoughts about other girls."

"Are you saying that because you think it is so, or because you're scared of what would happen if we did?" Misa asked now, making her spouse getting mad.

"What's that supposed to mean!" Madoka demanded to know.

"You heard!" Misa replied. "You don't think lecherous thoughts about other girls probably because you're scared of how we would react to it."

"I'm not scared." Madoka countered. "And why would I even have them to begin with? It wouldn't make sense for me to have thoughts about girls out of the blue."

"Well, what about me?" Misa asked now, making Madoka flinch. "Could you at least try to have some thoughts about me? I don't care what they are, at least try."

Madoka couldn't find an answer to that immediately. And what Misa just said then, made her think of something. Not enough to make her blush, but the damage was done. "...Are you just willing to keep this going, or something?"

"...Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that." Misa said, turning her head down. "And no, I don't want to keep this marriage together. It's just that... Nah, forget it."

"What? What?" Madoka reacted to her.

"Do you think... we really kissed back then?" Misa asked of her, and Madoka did an immediate spit take. "Oh come on! We were drunk in Arcadia, like you said. I can't tell if we even did."

"Does it matter that much to you?" Madoka asked her genuinely. "I know I've lost my first kiss back then, though whether it was to you or to Negi-kun, I'm not certain."

"Well, I want to be certain, at least." Misa replied to her, before bringing up an idea that would surely work on her, just to get what she wanted out of this. "Or is it that you really are scared of kissing girls?"

"Hey, I never said that." Madoka said. Technically, that was true.

"Oh? Then why don't you come and prove me wrong, hmm?" Misa inquired of her spouse.

"Oh, that's it." Madoka suddenly advanced on her friend and spouse, grabbing her by the hips with her right hand and jerked the purple-haired girl's head with the other. "Pucker up, Misa."

With that, the short haired cheerleader kissed the purple long haired cheerleader, making them both fall down on the bed next to the luggage they had been packing for Negi. Misa's own hands went somewhere on themselves somewhere onto Madoka's back, though that's what broke it off between them. The two of them stared at each other for a while.

"...How long, was that?" Madoka asked, being the one of top.

"...about 40 seconds..." Misa replied, still having her hands somewhere on Madoka.

"...You didn't have to grope me there, you know." Madoka tried to gain composure to herself.

"That coming from the person who went ahead to unbutton my shirt just then." Misa said, trying to get up, but she froze when she saw the person at the doorway. The look on her face made Madoka turn around as well.

Chisame had a blank face on herself, having seen the incident between the two, blinked twice and then snapped to her feet. " 'cuse me." The glassed girl said as she left the room, leaving the two girls on the bed.

"...That could have gone a whole lot better." Misa said after the net idol had left. "I hope she doesn't tell anyone."

"I hope that she'll keep it to herself what she just saw." Madoka replied, still looking at the doorway. Then she turned to the purple-haired girl. "Now, what exactly happened between you and Negi-kun that one time last year?"

"Um..." Misa was mentally looking for a way out of this scenario, but her friend's weight was pinning her down, so she decided to confess. "Remember when I got covered in mud that rainy day?" She asked and her wife nodded. "I went for the bath immediately after getting a change of clothes, and when I got there, I saw that Negi-kun was there already."

"And?"

"I just happened to have a coupon for washing Negi-kun full body with me. You remember, those that Konoka-san hands out? Plus, I needed someone to scrub my back."

"...So that's why Negi-kun reacted strangely to you that week." Madoka realized. "Wait, what happened between you two that day?"

"Well..." Misa tried to smile at the fun in the story. "...I gave him a portion of... the Talk."

_**Anyone care to make a minor crack fic about that?**_

"Okay, Negi likes western style breakfasts, but not too pushy about it." Theo repeated after having written down a list.

"That's right." Konoka confirmed for the elder princess. "He also have a tendency to avoid baths, you might want to give him a good scrub for that one once a day."

"Right. I'll probably ask Chachamaru-san to accompany us or something." Theo replied. "...We're talking about a thirteen year old now."

"Oh yeah, that's right." The healer noted. "Oh, and although he's a teenager, there is still the chance of him sneaking off into your bed, if you sleep in separate rooms. He just can't help it at times."

"...Right." Theo said. "I might as well do with what I get once we get there." She said, jotting that down on the notepad.

Elsewhere not far from the two princesses, a certain robot girl was listening in on them. She had heard Theodora talking about her coming along and the idea was very much tempting. Kisara-san and Furinji-san could take care of the cats whilst she was away in Spain, but she didn't feel like leaving the others behind for the war effort. Some of them would even turn hostile on her for 'betraying' them.

But she didn't go unnoticed. Someone poked her back to make her jump back. "What are you doing?" Ako asked the robot girl.

"No, uh..." Chachamaru had gained several emotions ever since they came back from the Magic World and it was evident since she was flailing her arms around. "Nothing... important..." She tried to excuse herself, but the nurse wouldn't let her go this time. An inquisitive look on the blue haired girl's face melted away the defense. "...Konoka-san and Theodora-hime-sama were talking about bringing me along with Negi-sensei..." She confessed.

"Did they now?" Ako asked and listened in on the two princesses. She hadn't heard everything, but she got about the gist of it. "...a, honeymoon?" She repeated the word from what Theo had said and asked Konoka to keep it a secret. "That's what Negi-kun is going on?"

"Ah-" Chachamaru tried to be of aid to the nurse, but she didn't seem to need it. Ako had something of a... serene and quiet look about herself. "Izumi-san?"

"Just call me Ako." The nurse corrected her. "...We probably should have seen this coming." She said, taking a final look at the two chatters. "Who knew Negi-kun would grow up that fast... kinda makes me jealous." She took a deep breath, taking that little moment to imagine herself as a real princess, then turning to the robot. "Chachamaru-san, keep an eye on them, would you?" She told her.

"Eh?" Was all that the robot girl could get out.

"Since Negi-kun is off to some real nice place, don't you think it's a little strange if he didn't have a servant with him?" She asked, pointing a finger at Chacha. "So, I'm asking you as a classmate and a friend here, to keep an eye on him whilst he's away. Okay?"

That word 'Okay' came out expressed as a threat of some kind. Chachamaru had several types of threats in her databank, yet none of them registered in allegiance with this one. "...As you wish... Ako-san." The robot complied.

"Sorry if I sounded threatening, but I think I speak for several of us in the class when I admit that I'm worried for Negi-kun on this one." The nurse confessed to her. "This is just natural, I think."

"Natural.." Chachamaru repeated the word. "Very well, I shall go and request the commander to let me join them."

"Good huntin'." Ako told her as they parted ways this time.

_**Finally got around to this**_

Having talked with a mercenary regarding something unrelated (to the situation here), Ashracai had found the castle's library. Naturally as a practitioner of the arcane Arts, he could not refuse the temptation of reading the various books. If it hadn't been for the glasses that allowed him to read foreign languages, he would certainly have trouble and go through the procedure of asking for help. Not that there was anything wrong with asking, his presence was officially known as 'Dead' to the inhabitants of the castle. He took several books regarding the basics of this planet's magic, plus one holding ancient spells and magic in its contents, found a secluded place with a desk, put up a barrier, and began to read, whilst at the same time, taking off his cloak and started rubbing it, not affectionally yet gently.

_When you begin to learn something new, always start with basics..._ He thought to himself as he looked through the apprentice book for beginners. _Let's see... _He looked over the small list of practitioner's incantations. As much as he pitied it, given that he was capable of doing it without even thinking on the matter, he could already form the major practicalities that these small cantrips could do. He gave the first one a go, at least. "Practe Bigi Nar, Ardescat." He said gently and a small flame sparked up on his index finger. He blew it out and continued reading of the book.

"Aha, so there you are." A voice behind him said, surprising him a little. It was Asakura Kazumi as he recalled they called her, along with a rather pretty white ghost with white hair and a small furry white creature on her shoulder. "You've been a bit of a pain to look after, you know?"

"I'll admit that I have spent some of my time practicing the usage of stealth." The Archmage confessed. "Though it's not like you could notice me even if I was in plain sight."

"Oi, oi, I'm not that bad at searching." Kazumi replied. "And you do tend to make a few noises about yourself, as well."

"Point." He gave her credit. "Now, was there something you would like to discuss with me, or are you simply killing time stalking people?"

"The former in this case." The little rodent spoke up.

"Oh? A familiar?" Ashracai said softly. "That was interesting. Yours?"

"Actually, he's Negi-kun's. He just likes to hang around me at times." The reporter told him. "At any rate, we'd like to ask you how you're able to use magic."

"We're of two completely different worlds." Chamo continued, introducing himself at the same time. "It is not surprising that you would use something than what we use."

"...You're saying that in return for me staying so long here and granted a new cloak, I am to tell you how my magic works?" Ashracai inquired of them.

"Well, it would certainly aid us and you if you would enlighten us with your greater knowledge." Kazumi answered.

"Enlighten." The Archmage repeated. "A good choice of words. It sometimes baffles me of how ephemeral your humans are. But you seem rather collected, yourself."

"Well, I am in front of probably the most powerful magic user on the planet at the current moment." Kazumi replied. "So I need to be selective of my words."

"Good initial move. Well then, to compare our differences, how does magic work here on this planet?" The archmage asked them first. The two natives along with the silent and watching ghost girl, explained at first how Magic and Chi worked and how different they were altogether. "Hm... that does differ." He said after they finished. "To begin with, in contrast to both kinds of how you gather energy, with the magi gaining it from the outside and the fighters from within themselves, we have evolved something different." He showed them illusions of various things as he said that, but he now focused on an ambiguous Githyanki body, zooming in on its head. "This is where we gather energy to use magic."

"The... brain?" Kazumi asked.

"The brain acts more or less as a Foci, much like the wands and rings you humans use." Ashracai replied. "It's the **mind** that we use. In long terms, the mind holds a lot more power than expected, it is just difficult to unlock that potential. There are basically three stages of it, from our perspective, the mental body, the astral body and the soul. The mental body is the first stage, what most people would think of as the mind, and it holds responsibility for contact with the physical world, such as muscle movement, magical ability, language, and so forth. When a spell is cast, the mental body snaps into action first, handing information on what spell shall be cast to the Astral body, which gives word and a verdict is reached... I'm speaking to simplify this process. For example, you see that target over there?" He pointed to a bulls-eye target opposite of their position. "Now let's that I want to hit it, so my mental will say to the astral: 'I want to shoot a Ray of Fire.' and the Astral body will respond: 'Okay' and it'll happen." To show it, a ray of fire did emit from his finger he pointed at the target and it hit directly on the center. "It works like that."

"You have yet to explain the other stages, Ashracai-san." Sayo decided to speak up.

"Ah yes." The archmage noted. "Thank you for pointing that out, young lady." The fact that he must have seen her all along was no surprise to them at all. "The Astral body is what people would perceive as emotions, created out of the Astral plane, another plane of existence. It houses thought, memories and of course emotions. There is no space or time, but both tend to catch up to you when you leave it. What the Astral body does is to gather the energy from the Astral plane and funnel it into the mental body in order to cast spells. In simpler words..." He gestured for any of them to answer.

"Your magic is more of a mental kind than spiritual."

"Exactly." Ashracai responded.

"But how come you're able to use this kind of magic to begin with?" Chamo asked him.

"We Githyanki used to live on the Astral Plane for millenia." He answered.

"Oh."

"Finally, we reach the Soul. That, is eternal. Much like reincarnation, the soul has the ability to travel from body to body, carrying all the body's abilities with it into the next. It has a weak link to the material world, but it is enough for it to be there. Once someone dies, it becomes loose, or free if you would like to call it that. But most souls cannot find their way once their physical form has passed away, since they are used to that one, and can rarely adapt to a new body."

"So that's how it works." Chamo said, grumbling over this piece of information. "Basically, as long as you can imagine something within magic capabilities, you can do that."

"Basically." The Archmage replied. "And as the Archmage, that would also make me in Imperial terms, Head of Magical Practice & Distribution, meaning I'm responsible for ensuring a proper balance of magi in our space empire."

"...So you're pretty much-" Sayo asked.

"With confidence, the most powerful Sorcerer this side of the 'Milky Way' as you humans call the galaxy." Ashracai replied. "And to answer the question forming in your head, yes, I can do anything whatsoever, to simplify what Chamo here asked."

"Do you think you could-" Kazumi began. "Nah, it's stupid, never mind."

"As you wish." Ashracai said. "Though I am curious as to why you require a potent ability to sense 'scoops' just like that."

"I said, never mind."

"Fair enough." Ashracai responded. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I am needed elsewhere. There seems to be some major disturbance in the Kahrsis systems regarding oppression of outcast people of the societies there. I'm going to have to leave earlier than expected. Thank you for your time, Asakura Kazumi, Aisaka Sayo and Chamo the Ermine." He rose up from his seat by the desk, taking the cloak with him, putting it on. "...I'll suppose I'll add a little something extra to your cloaks, should I ever come back." With that, and a snap of his fingers, he disappeared out from their sights.

"Hmm... that was very interesting to learn." Kazumi said, taking out a recorder. "Now we know how their magic works, and I think we'll gain a little something extra for this."

_**Introducing a new guy**_

"...Hmm, well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have you come along, Chachamaru-san." Aris answered her. "Just go ask Negi if it's fine, and you're good. Shouldn't be too hard."

Chachamaru gave a genuine smile at that reply. "Thank you, Commander."

"Good, now I need to-" He was cut off by something loud coming up outside the castle. Namely the sound of a car roaring at full speed. "What the?"

Outside, there was a new car going at high speed on the thin bridge between the portal gate and the great castle itself. They couldn't see the model yet, but it was mostly black lined with crimson red. As soon as it reached the great dock with the elevated area, it practically jumped up on it with ease. The passenger didn't seem to be pleased, since she stepped out as soon as the engine stopped. "That's the last time you'll be driving, Karl!" Precia Testarossa yelled at the driver.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad!" Karl, a short, stocky man with a gray beard stepped out of the driver's seat. "Okay, that detour wasn't the best, but we got out of that pinch, didn't we?"

"With all those things behind us!" Precia countered. "You're lucky I didn't punch you and take over the wheels, because that could've got us all killed!"

"Is that my brand new DB9, Karl!" The Spartan cried out as he stepped out of the audience gathering close to the car. Almost immediately, the guys (save a few) were strucken with the good looks of Precia, in that outfit as well. "What have you been putting it through!"

"Oh, hi, old man!" Karl greeted him instantly. "Just giving that dimension crossing thingy a go that I put in it recently."

"A dimension crossing thingy?" Aris repeated.

"Yeah, we needed to get here rapidly, so I built that. And then we had to get here to help you out." Karl defended his case.

"You're as loony as ever, Gestr." The Spartan said bluntly. "Did you come here for a loan again or something?"

"Nah, I'm fine on my own."

"Mother!" Alicia cried happily and ran up to hug her mother. "?" She felt something odd almost immediately.

"Alicia." Precia lifted up her little girl and gave her a kiss on the temple. "Have you been a good girl?"

"Um!" Alicia replied. "I even helped Negi-san beat Father."

"Huh?" Precia wondered.

"Long story." Aris explained. "I'll tell you later."

"Who?" Asuna pointed at the stocky man besides the old Spartan. "Oyaji, who is that?"

"Oh, right, introductions. Everyone, meet Karl Sigurdsson Gestr. He's a long time old friend of mine and business partner." Aristodemus said to everyone who had gathered.

"Tjena!" Karl greeted them in his own accent.

"And well, this is Precia Testarossa, head of my company's Research & Development department in the Magic World and mother to little Alicia, as you can see." He introduced Precia as well, nodded at them.

"Pleasure to see you all." Precia greeted them. "I look forward to work with you here."

"Now then, is there a particular reason you'r-" Aris asked the new old man there with a beard, but there were some rumble coming from the back of the car. "What the hell are you keeping in there? A ferocious pet or something?" He went up to the boot of the car and opened it up...

_Only to have some kind of monster lashing out at him right from the moment he opened it..._

"Whoa!" He cried out as it came at him, rolling back and kicking it over himself, sending it flying over himself and scratching at the floor. Several people screamed in fright of the sight of it. It was bipedal, with four arms, the lower pair resembling human hands and the other had razor sharp claws. It had a bulbous head, suggesting a big brain and it was built generally for speed and agility. "What the?"

"I needed that opportunity!" A new voice, distorted by a vox of some kind, said behind him and out of the car's boot came a big armored fellow, with big shoulders equaling the head in height and he was fully plated, with few weak spots. He held a large pistol in his right hand and tossed a bigger, two handed version of it, very box-like in design to the Commander. "Care to help me here, Sir?"

"You had to ask?" Aris cocked it and aimed the gun at the beast, preparing to charge. Let's just say that the rounds were designed to explode on impact. It was a bloody mess they left after they had fired on the beast. "Right. Now what the hell was that?"

"Um, you see, there's a funny story to that..." Karl chuckled lightly to ease the mood.

"We came into this abandoned ship-like wreck on our way here." The armored man answered instead. "At first we went on to explore it, but when things such as that came at us, we got back in the car and drove like crazy. Me, I kept firing my boltgun at the beasts, til that one crashed into me, locking us both up in the boot. Fortunately, we had a lot of pocket-dimensional space for us to be in, and I know how to hide even in this."

"Thanks a lot, at least, er..." Aris was curious as to who it was, but couldn't see due to the helmet. The armored decided to take it off, and that was a surprise for the former's part.

"Volunteer Tech expert and Artificer Andreas Stonegarden, reporting for duty, Commander." The traveling peddler saluted the short Spartan.

"Mister Stonegarden? What are you doing here?"

"If I may speak bluntly, Sir, you can thank Herr Gestr for that." Andreas answered. "He lured me in with the idea of seeing Japan and Mahora, then shoved me into the trunk along with this armor."

"Karl!" Aris turned immediately to the elder of the newly arrived trio. "Vi har pratat om det här!"

"Come on, I needed an apprentice!" Karl defended himself. "Andreas is Swedish too, and he's got a bright head. He's got some impressive stuff, too."

"You can speak more than 40 languages and you go for a fellow Swede as an apprentice?" Aris asked.

"Plus, han hade ett visst begär att träffa någon igen, också." Karl spoke in Swedish.

"Oh, so he's that kind of guy..."

"If you're going to talk about someone like they're lecherous, then do so in a language they cannot understand." Andreas scolded both of them at the time. "Ah, to heck with this, I'd better go talk to the others."

"Huh? Sure, go ahead." Karl motioned for him to talk with the other residents.

"Andreas-san?" Asuna was among the first. "How come you're here?"

"You'll have to talk with Herr Gestr over there about it." The merchant replied. "Me, I got drafted in and shoved into a pocket dimension filled with a lot of big toys. Not to mention chased by... you saw it yourselves." He gave a sigh before continuing. "And now I'm hoping I'm not too much of a burden here."

"But how come that you know how to fight? I mean, fight that well?" Kotarou stepped up.

"Bandits and monsters have a tendency to ambush you on the roads. You need to know how to defend yourself from that." Andreas replied, scratching the back of his neck. Asuna looked first at him, then Setsuna and Haruna, before putting her arm over his shoulders.

"Well, now that you mention about not being too much of a burden, we could use your help with something..."

"I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"Wow." Karl said after hearing the full story. "So that's what's going to happen."

"In two days." Aris answered him. "Now, I got a team leader and the build-up for a good team to go, but now that I actually think about it, we lack something vital. Ergo, a base of operations. Now how am I going to get that for them on an alien planet? All I know about the damn rock is that the atmosphere is somehow capable for humans to breathe in."

"You'll be needing a ship." Gestr concluded.

"And a good one too." The Spartan said. "Now, I'm going to be brief: do you want to make the Guinness Record book for building an airship in two days or maybe less, or am I going to have to revoke your driver's license?"

"Har du någonsin känt mig för att göra dig besviken?" Karl asked him.

"No, I haven't. And cut the Swedish, now. It would only make things confusing to an outsider."

"Fair enough. I can do that. And what's more, I brought those things you asked for. I just need a few final measurements on someone and the first suit will be complete." Karl explained to his old friend. "Thinking of someone willing to use it?"

"...You can try Asuna. But remember, ask her first. You remember well the last time it happened without permission." Aris answered him.

"It was strictly off the record." Karl protested.

"She fired a shotgun at you."

"Yeah, but it was rubber bullets." He replied. "Now how much money are you gonna give me in order to build this ship?"

"Whatever it takes to make it perfect for a mission like this." Aris responded immediately. "Ask the girls for directions on how they want it to look and you can put in whatever guns and upgrades you'd like on the damn thing. Just make a good job at it and you'll be paid in full."

Karl leered like a little child being told that they can have as much candy as they'd like. "I'll start right away."

_**Monday morning**_

"And this is the whole team?" Karl asked the white-haired construct, looking at the odd bunch. They were outside the resort now, gathered under a bunker

"Indeed." Fate answered. "Apologies in advance that Mr Stonegarden is drafted into the team as well, but apparently Asuna brought up the fair argument in that we needed an engineer."

"Nah, it's fine." Karl said, looking at the team consisting of Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka, Yue, Haruna, Akira, Chizuru, Dynamis and the Knight Valkyrie team from the Magic World, plus the mentioned young man. "But why this group?"

"Setsuna is being forced on this mission, and Konoka does not have the intention of letting her out of her sight again." Fate began to explain, telling the first names without honorifics. "Ayase is an able tactician on her own, which is why I asked her to be 2nd in command on this. Saotome have experience as a pilot, and you did say that you were going to build a ship. Ookouchi and Naba volunteered for this due to them being concerned about Miyazaki, so I assigned those two together as a team on their own. And I asked Naba as well to be an apprentice of mine as a back-up. The Knight Valkyries was transferred to me from Theo-hime in that she didn't need them herself. And Dynamis is anxious or so I believe in seeing Miyazaki again."

"I relish the chance." Dymanis explained for himself.

"Oh, goodie." Karl said, seeing the whole team being together. "And I'm just about done with everything myself on my part." He went to unveil something big. "For starters, I give you: The Great Paru-Sama, mark 2." The great fish was revealed to them, being just as great as the previous. "As you can see, it's very similar in appearance to the original, but I made a few modifications. In addition to its guns, this have additional in built Sagitta Magicka mini guns on the wings, enhanced Iaculatio launchers on the main hull, and a solar powered magic engine."

"That's it?" Haruna asked of the Artificer. "You just put on bigger guns and a more convenient engine?"

"Ah, but that's the outside only, it's the **inside** that you're gonna like." Karl answered her. "It's holding a pocket dimension with enough space to hold in total up to 300 people. That's including the cargo space, lodging and corridors. There is a big kitchen inside, shower booths for multiple people at once, not to mention filled with entertainment, which happens to be a full set of rulebooks for D&D, 3.5 edition, should you ever feel like that. It also holds an infirmary in case anybody get severely injured and finally an armory filled with guns, extra blades if needed and armor. Speaking of which, I got one in particular for little Asuna."

"The one you asked for my measurements?" The redhead asked.

"Oh yes, if you'll just come inside." He motioned for them to come on inside. He continued his talking as they walked in to inspect the ship on the inside. "It took me a while to design the armor by basis, using what schematics inspirations I could find, but I got it done a couple of days ago. Just needed the measurements of you girls at first." He opened up a door to the right of them. "Here's the armory. Now, miss, I need you to remove your bells at first, since the suit comes with a helmet."

"Um, okay." The redhead was reluctant to do this, but agreed to it, handing her bells over to Konoka. From there, she was instructed to walk into the armory and stand slighty to the wall. "Okay, what now?"

"The suit requires a voice command, using words instead of voice here." Karl explained. "The password is: Adepta Sororitas."

"Huh?" Asuna wondered as the wall came to life and adorned the armor on her, starting from the feet and upwards. When it was done, Asuna was heavily armor-plated. Segmentation areas were mainly the limbs and abdomen, the rest was plated and colored almost entirely black. Of course, the armor did reveal where her breasts were, but they had seemingly the heaviest plating on the torso area. Great shoulder plating did she have as well, and the neck collar was decorated with a fleur-de-lis. A belt was there as well, also having a fleur-de-lis as decoration. The belt held a couple of fragmentation grenades, plus a lot of satchel bags small enough to help her move with ease. She did not have a helmet at the time. "This is it?"

"Oh yes." The elder tech expert replied, grinning inanely at her. "And if you think it's just decoration and pretty baubles, think again. The grenades are real, those are genuine Bags of Holding, the armor is enchanted with a permanent Melodia Bellax on, as well as a danger sense system that goes telepathically to you as soon as it detects it and tells you where the danger comes from."

"Whoa..." Asuna twisted her arm slightly to get a feeling of this armor. "Hey, you said there would be a helmet with this. Where is it?"

"Right next to you." He pointed to a black one with a bleached bone colored front and red eye slits had revealed itself to the redhead's right. She picked it up to have a better look.

"Looks creepy." Asuna commented.

"Oh yeah, sure and cute little rabbits is even more scary, is it now?" Karl was being sarcastic. "Well, go on and explore. I got more orders from the old man to do and you kids gotta run on this big mission. Good luck to you all." With that, he headed for the exit.

"Huh." Asuna said, seeing the crazy old Swede leave the ship. "And here I thought he was just another loony we would come to know."

"Actually, I think he fits that description very well." Andreas commented, being out of his armor. "Thing is, he's the best Artificer you would ever stumble upon. Half of his work, I hear, is incorporated into the Spartan Hounds."

"And now you're part of the war effort as well." Haruna lamented for the technician of the team.

"Shoot me now." He was on the verge of tears.

"Too late, I'm afraid." Fate told him. "Now then, did you girls finish the exams yesterday?"

"Yes." The collective number called out in response.

"Anyone need to do anything before we take off?"

"No." Everyone replied.

"Well then." Fate said first then turned to Haruna. "Saotome, start up the engine and prepare for take-off. I don't want anyone normal to see us when we take off."

"Got it." Haruna replied and headed for the bridge.

"Everyone else, strap yourselves in. I have the feeling that it is going to be a... 'bumpy' ride."

"Got it." Most acknowledged.

* * *

"Well, that's them going off." Negi noted, seeing the GPS taking off in the sky, to be greeted by another flyer, presumably of the Loyalist Githyanki, and then a portal opened up for them to go through. "And there they go off to another world..."

"Don't worry, Negi." Theo, dressed in casual clothing and a hat to block the coming sunlight. "I'm sure they'll bring back Nodoka-chan. You just need to have a little faith."

"...Yeah." Negi replied. "I guess you're right."

"Negi-sensei, Theo-hime-sama." Chachamaru addressed them both, being in casual clothing as well. "The taxi has arrived. We should get a move on."

"Ah yes." Theo replied to the robot girl. "Let's go."

Giving the magic bracer Negi received from the Spartan back in Arcadia, he went along with them. "Um, Negi-san." He was stopped by a little voice behind, turning out to be Alicia, holding a long package wrapped in purple silk in her hands. "Um..." She tried, but went up to him first. "You... could use... this." She handed the long package to him. "I'm just a bit... concerned, like something bad is going to happen, so..." She was blushing furiously under the pressure she was feeling from talking to him. "It's just a bad feeling. I just don't want you to be more hurt than you were back then."

Negi felt genuine feelings from her this time, as she was blushing just like how Nodoka used to. He couldn't help but smile at her concern for him. "Don't worry, Alicia-san." He replied to her, petting her head at that moment. "I'll repay you properly someday, really, thank you for your concern."

Alicia would have died happily just then, satisfied with what he told her then. "Negi-san..."

"**_'Tis a date, than."_** Lochaber cut in, making the little girl jump in fright. **_"I fer wun wants mah Liegfch ta be spending a day wit ye, Negi." _**He addressed the young magi by name, recognizing him as an important person to his Liegfch. **_"And ye dinnae expect ta raceive mah Liegfch's aide wit'out some way o' repaying, did ye?"_**

"Lochaber!" Alicia scolded the necklace, holding it tightly.

"Hey, Negi!" Theo called to him from the cab. "Get a move on those legs! We're leaving!"

"Coming!" Negi replied to her. "Gotta go, Alicia, see you later when I come back." He told the little girl and ran to the taxi car.

Alicia stood where she was, in the cold and in her normal clothes she went shopping with her dad when they got to Mahora, recalling how Negi had just addressed her. Seeing the car drive off to Nariba Airport, she couldn't help but glow awfully pink in a blush. _He called me Alicia... no honorifics at all, no honorifics at all... He... he likes me as well... _And with that, she fainted and fell back. She would have landed on the hard concrete if it weren't for another blonde catching her first and lifting her up into her arms.

"Negi-sensei..." Ayaka watched the car off before it made a turn. "...Good luck to you." She blessed him, even though she couldn't hear. "Honestly, you got your unique way of dealing with girls." She giggled, seeing Alicia fast asleep and then hugging her own grown up form. "Well, back to bed for you, Missy."

_**Bringing us up to present day**_

The army of three thousand Githyanki soldiers, accompanied by some two hundred human troops, marched under the clouds gathering. Armed with spears and bows, they moved almost silently in comparison to the humans, who chatted lightly amongst themselves. The horse riders, namely Nodoka, Hina, Boris, Rev'keth and Symon, rode by the main army, followed by Raydan on a full grown Caribou (he had yet to get a horse for himself) and Bax, riding on a strong and sturdy Bighorn ram. They seemed nervous, getting looks from the Githyanki soldiers, mostly focused on the bookworm of the group. At least one of them was telepathic, she gathered, as they said nothing, but probably were abuzz with thoughts amongst themselves regarding her.

"It's really disturbing with them just watching us like that." Hina said, breaking the silence.

"Believe me," Rev'keth responded, sounding concerned. "I've been picking up their telepathic chatter, and frankly... you don't want to hear it."

"Thought as much." Raydan said before turning to the Gith soldiers. "Mind your own business, would you?" He yelled at them, and the Soldiers turned their gazes away from them, for the moment.

"They doubt the stories." Bax explained to them. "I doubted them myself until the events at Zuriith-ma. But your own features, if I may, does not exist on this planet. And I have seen many human features to verify that at least."

"You had your suspicions of us." Hina told him. "It's natural. We didn't want to be caught up in some civil war, ourselves. Yet here we are."

"Indeed." Boris finally commented. "I for one believed us to be having a simple life, without anything happening to us at all."

"There's four of us, then." Rev'keth replied to the Russian.

Hina noted then that her little sister had remained quiet this entire time, sparing just a few glimpses at the soldiers. "Nodoka?"

"Huh?" The bookworm reacted to Hina's question. "What is it?"

"You've been awfully quiet since we left Glathk. You sure you're not sick?" The pink-haired girl asked her gently, putting her armored hand on the girl's forehead.

"No, I'm fine, Hina." Nodoka replied to her. "I was just thinking, that's all."

"Fate Averruncus, huh?" Hina wondered. "No surprise there, I suppose. I only know you two have got a bad history, but that's it."

"Well," Nodoka began to tell her association with the white-haired construct. "Put it like this: Out of all the members of my former group, the White Wing, I was the only one that Fate's group felt like trying to kill due to my dangerous ability."

"Eh?" Hina recoiled in shock. "They tried to kill you?"

"Yes, but... I always came out on top somehow. Because I had friends who watched my back all the time. And now I got you guys, right?" She smiled at them, gaining a few back.

"You got that right." Symon replied first.

"Yeah, we're gonna beat that guy for you." Raydan added.

"We ain't letting him get past us." Bax noted as well, smiling.

"Orders are absolute." Boris added for his part.

"See?" Hina told her little sister. "We're with you all the way."

At that time, a rider from the Gith army came to them from the lead of the column. "Captain Ishin Saura wants to see the Witch of Man immediately. Battle plans." He said briefly. Nodoka complied by stirring her horse to ride faster than the others, following the messenger up to the captain's side.

Captain Ishin Saura was not as beautiful as Efromm, but she had looks that almost equaled. Charcoal black hair wrapped in a bundle fitted under some kind of turban, and clad in chain mail armor. She had a curved saber at her left side, along with a spear in her hand as Nodoka approached the commanding officer. "You sent for me, Captain?" She asked the Githyanki woman.

"What kind of spells do you know?" Ishin asked immediately. Upon not receiving an answer, she tried again. "What kind of spells do you know?" She repeated the question slowly.

"Eh? Um, mostly offensive ones for grand battles like this, but almost nothing for support for others."

"Hm..." Ishin thought deeply on that. "Fine. You stay in the back with your company and provide covering fire if it comes to a battle. I have two magic users with me as well, I need you three to maintain a barrage on the enemy if there is any."

"Understood, Captain." Nodoka replied immediately.

"...May I be honest with you?" The Githyanki woman asked and the bookworm nodded after a while. "I like the idea of a human with magic, really. I wasn't born during the time of the Great War, but from what I hear of the stories, you guys must have been something. Me, I may have to wait a while, but I'd really like to go up against human wizards, should you become High Queen of Samasal."

"Um... should you really be saying that?" Nodoka asked her. "Wouldn't you get in trouble for saying something like that?"

"Why? I hold no love for Ifrith myself, and just because we're the same species, that doesn't mean that I'm automatically on his side." Ishin explained. "But you keep your wits about you, young girl. You might have no idea what could happen tomorrow, or even in the next five minutes. That's what makes life so exciting."

"Um... thanks for your support?" Nodoka tried that line.

"Right now though, you stay in the back and hold your men back. I expect nothing serious coming up for us, but I just want to be sure..."

**

* * *

**

A/N: Captain, you have no idea...

**-The idea of Negi's honeymoon with Theo has been in my mind for some time, and now I've decided to make it my first 'M' rated story here on . Please look forward to it.**

**- You didn't think I'd forgotten about the other married couples I made, huh? That's all for now though. Though I gotta admit, it was my first proper attempt at Yuri, and with the cheerleaders to boot. Here's to you, Ultima-kun!**

**-I did not create Mentalism magic. It was originally made by Silent Type Delta, or STD, author of Mentality here on the Negima section. I just merely changed a few concepts to make it fit the Githyanki race. To make it fair though, the Githyanki have a strict policy regarding its magic as to prevent mass conquest, and therefore improve relations with other space empires out there. **

**-I skipped a lot of things happening in order to save time. Plus I got bored. I do not own Karl Sigurdsson Gestr. He is yet another creation by Nyrath, my mentor in writing a good story. He's coming around to write a story herself named 'Displaced' Please look forward to that as well. **

**-Asuna's armor has a link on my profile. Look it up for a more accurate depiction. It is based on the Adepta Sororitas from Warhammer 40k, if you know what that is. And therefore, Vast, the difference between you and me on gear: I have the more _cooler _stuff.**

**And that's it for now. Please R&R this one, please. I can't improve otherwise. **


	39. Where's Nodoka?

**A/N: Now I can get on track with the real story. From here, I won't cut back to Earth, since they'll only be doing training, I'm afraid. What else is there to do when you can't do anything else regarding something? The focus will also happen on the OCs, which will make sense to the plot and I will try to make everybody get their shine in the story. Okay, not everybody, but I'll do my best.**

"Okay, let's take a look at what we have in inventory, shall we?" Andreas asked as he opened up several lockers and crates for them to look in, him, Asuna, Chizuru and Haruna. "Chizuru-san, you call out something on the list that we're supposed to have, and we others call check when we found it."

"Okay, starting from the top." Chizuru checked the block she had in her hands. "4 sets of power armor, suitable for male and female."

"Check." Asuna said, finding the suits.

"15 bladed weapons."

"Check." Haruna yelled lightly.

"7 rifles."

"Check." Andreas called.

"4 shotguns."

"Check."

"Crowbars."

"Check."

"Field first aid kits."

"Check."

"3 Ankhs of..." Chizuru looked closer at the words to be clear. "...Extended Life."

"What, those?" Andreas reacted first.

"You know them?"

"Oh yeah, in practice they give you immortality from trauma damage and disease. You still die of old age, but the Ankh will prevent you from dying in the field. I do however recommend a good healer if you want to continue living, as the ankh doesn't cover bleeding or lost limbs. You need to get them to a healer to get them reattached to you." He told them.

"And I take it developers didn't feel like having that put in them?"

"Nah, it had to be able to sell at the market, not to mention healers would be out of a job. Even then, they're expensive as Hell. Just look for something looking like a cross, but having a hoop on the top and linked to a chain."

"...Check." Asuna called out, holding one in her hand. It was made out of white gold with a silver chain. "So in practice these things give you immortality?"

"Well, yes. I could shoot you with a shotgun point blank and you'd still be able to a balloon animal out of me in retaliation." Andreas answered.

"Nice."

"...Explosives." Chizuru decided to continue the list.

"Check." Haruna replied.

"3 bottles of endless soda."

"Check. 3 different kinds: Fanta, Sprite and Pepsi."

"Heavy Bolter with magic generator."

"A what?"

"Check." Andreas called, holding the massive gun in his hands. "Karl looks up too much 40k."

"...Um, I can't read this word." Chizuru said, and the engineer walked up to have a look.

"It says... Semlakylskåp? What the-" Andreas exclaimed but recalled he was in the presence of ladies. "Look for a fridge. Probably small."

"Found it." Haruna replied first and opened it to find several tiny semla inside. "Oh, these are so cute." She pulled out one, only to find it had grown to its normal size outside the fridge. "Ooo, a variation of Hammerspace!" She exclaimed, putting it in to see it shrink and then pulling it out for it to grow, repeating it a few times. "Mind if I try one?"

"Go ahead. Shall we move on?"

"Right." Chizuru said and the engineer went back to the lockers and crates. "Satchel Bag of Parchments."

"Check, Fate used that back in that city." Asuna said, recalling what Fate had been off to.

"Trenchcoat."

"Check, he used that as well."

"1 Dreadnought." Chizuru finally said, and the whole room was quiet.

"Did you say 'Dreadnought', Chizuru-san?" Asuna asked the apprentice.

"Yes, that's what it says." Chizuru replied.

"Did he shove a battleship in here or something!" Andreas exclaimed. "How did he do that!"

"I knew that guy had a loose screw. Must be a joke of some bizarre kind." Haruna said, shaking her head and leaning on the great crate right next to her. _Hold on._ "Erm... I think I found the crate holding it."

The others take a look at the big crate that the mangaka was leaning on and it was very big and wide. "...Asuna-san, get us some crowbars." Andreas told the redhead, who complied by giving him one and the two walked over to the crate whilst Haruna stepped aside, having her bun. "If there's nothing in here, then this has got to be the worst practical joke in history." With that, both of them put their crowbars in check and pulled hard so the crate opened up.

"Um... Check." Haruna said, taking the first look, followed soon by the pryers. "That... is the most awesome thing I've ever seen in this half of my life."

"...What was that stuff that Karl looked into too much, again?" Asuna asked.

"40k. Long story." Andreas answered her.

"Whatever it is, I'm glad that he's too much into it."

"_Stonegarden." _Fate's voice was heard as a monitor with him cut into the cargo hold. _"Anything new to report?"_

"Well, we're running an inventory check right now, and..." Andreas replied, taking a look at the big thing. "We got some nifty toys down here so far."

"_Well then. Kagurazaka."_ He addressed the redhead with bells. "_Something has come up down on the surface. There's a global telepathic command regarding something important."_

"So you're sending me to the wolves already?"

"_No, there seems to be a large gathering of fighters for this one. Mostly native humans. We could do well with support from indigenous populace."_

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going." Asuna replied. "Get me a shotgun, ammo, one of those ankhs and a couple more grenades if we got any." She instructed the others. Upon receiving them, she continued her talk to Fate. "Fate, you might want to give that satchel bag to Chizuru-san, she'll need it more than you do, and make sure you'll teach her Latin as well. She's the newbie here, she'll need all the help she can get here."

"_Didn't expect you to ask me that, Kagurazaka."_ Fate replied at first.

"I'm just concerned for the welfare of everybody here." Asuna countered. "Chizuru-san is new to all of this and, no offense," She told the more mature looking one. "can't use magic properly. Or did the thought of sending an unprepared newbie out there go into your head?" Upon hearing that, Fate's monitor went off.

"...Thank you." Chizuru told her. "Really."

"Don't mention it." Asuna said, putting on the ankh around her neck, tightening it so it wouldn't come off. "Alright, wish me luck out there. I hope this is just an in-and-out mission." She said that whilst plucking out a small dragon figurine, this one made of obsidian.

_**What happened a bit earlier**_

"Come on... just a bit further..." Symon told himself as he crawled along the field filled with bodies to get to his other leg. "Come on, come on..." He managed to get hold of it. "YES!" Wasting no time, he reattached the leg onto himself and it kicked in, making sure that the leg stuck there. "Phew." He collapsed on the field, covered in cuts and slashes across his leather armor, and his cloak was all torn from scratches and blade swings. "Oww... that really hurt." He tried to get up to get a look over the battlefield. "Well, this isn't looking good. Not good at all."

A lone figure stumbled, with its grotesque features and sharpened fangs for teeth, and ragged armor, through the field and spotted him. A single roar escaped his lips as it charged toward the sitting ranger fellow. "Ah, blast!" Symon said, trying to draw one of his swords, only to see his assailant get shot down by a single bolt in the throat. "What?"

"Don't thank me." Jashol told him as he came from behind. "I like it that way. Bloody things come out of nowhere now and then here to try and get a bite of you."

"Jashol?" Symon asked. "Huh, didn't expect you to be the one coming to my rescue." He tried to get up, only to be pulled up by the older of the two.

"You might as well get used to it, sooner or later." Jashol told him. "Normally I wouldn't have to put up with this crap, but the incentive is too strong for me this time."

"Oh, so you're just in it for the money?"

"Money? Money doesn't fit into this equation. I just want to be cured." He told Symon, but had to explain it somehow to him. "...I have a... unique sickness. High King Rufus said he would get rid of it if I signed up for this quest of yours."

"Right..." Symon bought that story, but realized there was more to it. He decided not to pursue the matter, as they had more pressing ones at hand. "Have you seen the others?"

"No, you're the first I've found since this mess." Jashol replied. "Apart from a few straggling survivors from Glathk, you're the only one I've met."

"...Oh, crap." Symon said, realizing what this could mean. "We need to find the others. We gotta make sure they're alive."

Jashol paled as he realized that if Nodoka was dead, then they were all in big trouble. Most troubling for him, he would be vivisected by the magi. "Come on!"

"Nodoka!" Symon cried out, running in the direction he believed she could be in. Since they were seemingly in the middle of the carcass filled field, they headed for the upper hill where Captain Ishin Saura had kept their mage from the main battle... until someone sounded an emergencey alarm when the apparent dragons came flying down on them. "Nodoka!"

"Lady!" Jashol joined him. "Lady~!"

"Miss Hinagiku!" Symon tried now. "Boris! Raydan! Rev'keth! Bax!" Then he crashed into someone. "Oof!"

"Watch it, would you?" The tall Githyanki told him. This one was dressed in a great robe, very much like the one Nodoka herself had been wearing. But it was like he had popped out of nowhere whilst they were running for the hills. "...You would seem, familiar to me. Somehow."

"Familiar?" Symon repeated the word, taking a full look at him. He could see the white hair under the hood. "Do I know you?"

"Hold on..." The tall Gith said, before waving a green glowing hand in front of the young man's face with his eyes closed. "Ah. The Merchant Prince. It was an interesting... encounter you had last year, Symon, son of Gaelan."

"Wha?" Symon exclaimed suddenly, reeling back. "How did you know about that!"

"Argh, he's a mage!" Jashol reacted violently, and got that blackwooden spear from somewhere and pointed it at the newcomer. "Stay away from us. I don't know about Symon, but you certainly aren't gonna vivisect either of us in my opinion."

"I only came here to investigate the sudden amount of magic energy that had exploded in this area." The mage excused himself, taking a firm hold of the spear. "And you'd better put this away before I lock you up in a little sphere, Jashol, son of Jashal."

"What the-? How come you know our names to begin with?" Jashol asked the tall mage.

"In case you must know, since time is running, I'm of the Underground Githyanki. We keep a detailed record of those on the surface, who has had an intriguing experience with magic and gained a semi-permanent effect from it. Symon on one hand has had a mild encounter and wasn't really worth gathering in, since the effect he gained was although permanent, it was already replicable by our own powers."

"So that's why you magi wise guys have been hunting me, because you can't replicate my abilities?" Jashol inquired of him.

"Something to that effect, but we can't dwell on this discussion right now. You were searching for someone, weren't you?"

"Oh, crap!" Symon reacted first. "Nodoka! We gotta find her!"

"Come on, we need to find out what happened here in order to find out where she is now." The mage said before introducing himself. "I'm Ashracai, Archmage of the Githyanki, and Nodoka's father."

"Pleased to meet y-AAAAargh! Nodoka's father?" The ranger exclaimed, reeling back in shock.

"Adoption." Ashracai explained for short term whilst looking for something that stood out. "Look for something belonging to any of your friends. That takes priority first."

The three of them set to work immediately. Apart from saving the life of the occasional wounded soldier, or granting another one the peace of eternal sleep, it took over an hour before they discovered something that belonged to a companion. "Found it!" Jashol cried out, waving the other two over.

"That's Lady Hina's helmet." Symon recognized the seemingly intact helmet made of black metal and the distinguishable inverted omega in apparent brass or gold was still whole, save for its right horn that was broken. Fortunately, if one wanted to repair, the bit that had broken off lay just by the side. "She wore her armor in this battle, but we got separated from each other in the heat of it."

"Let me take a look." Ashracai grasped the helmet from Jashol's hands and his own started to glow. Upon sensing their reaction, he soothed them. "I am using Psychometry, meaning I can sense on this helmet what happened here."

"Yeah, a great battle took place here." Jashol replied sarcastically. "In case the bodies strewn out here wasn't evidence enough." But the mage ignored him and peered into what happened...

_She did not make any kills at the time, but Hina bashed away many of the horrid humanoid beasts that ravaged the town and had now marched on them instead once they were done. The spawn that assaulted them did not seem interested in taking prisoners, so they were all in major danger. The pink-haired girl in black armor just slammed away with Masamune and still they were coming. "These guys just keep coming!" She cried out as she was making a solid stance along with a few of their soldiers, Bax alongside them. "Come on, guys! This may sound personal to you, but we cannot let these things reach the Lady Witch! She's our only hope of ensuring a greater freedom for all of us!"_

"_Count on us, Ma'am!" A fellow soldier cried out, striking down a few of the fiends. "We ain't gonna let them pass!"_

_But his words were cut short as an opponent cut him down shortly after he said them. Hina bashed away the opposition, but the man was already dead. "Damnit!" She exclaimed, taking safety again among the other men. "Don't take the enemy alone! Find someone to pair up with against them!" But as soon as she saw an ominous figure, dressed in ragged black torn robes and wielding a staff that seemed spawned out of some abyss, she nearly froze in terror. Shaken out of it by her hobgoblin fellow, she snapped back into sense as she saw the figure raise the staff, pointing it at something. Calibrating its line of fire, she saw that Boris was the end of it, him being the obvious target. "Bax, with me!" She cried and the Hobgoblin followed her from the other soldiers._

_Boris fought unarmed, but his armor protected him better than expected. Either that, or the enemy was lousy as Hell at fighting. Was this the best they could do? Well, he was the one faring the best so far, as although the Githyanki troops outdid him in speed and teamwork, numbers overran them in the long run. He wondered how long he could keep up his fighting. "Boris!" Hina's voice cut in from the left, the pink-haired girl and Bax rushing to his side through the enemy ranks. It was then that he heard a sound and looking to in front of him, a dreadful missile was going to hit him._

_Had Hina decided to not take the blast for him instead... _

"_No!" The armored fighter cried out as his charge fell to the ground, her shoulder burning slightly and smoking. He crouched down to check on her. She was still alive, but she didn't get up or open her eyes. A trumpet could be heard in the distance._

"_Come on!" Bax called to his senses, snapping him out of it. "We got to get out of here! They're signaling the retreat! Grab her and let's go!" The hobgoblin made him do so, but they dropped the helmet in the process. There was no time to pick it up, they just ran like hell away from there..._

Ashracai took a deep breath through his nostrils, having seen all that. "They got away." He told the others. "Hinagiku took a hit to the shoulder, but she'll live. Boris and a hobgoblin named Bax got away with her."

Symon and Jashol let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding. "That's a relief..." Jashol said.

"I got a good look around when I scanned the helmet." The archmage told them, pointing to the hilltops. "That's where Nodoka was stationed for this battle, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah." Symon recalled. "Come on, she could be alive and still up there."

"Me, I doubt it, but what the hell, it's worth having a look at least." The elder human said as they started to run up there.

"Think positive thoughts on this, Jashol." Symon tried to encourage him. "Positive thoughts on this."

"Yeah, best result I can think of is she's alive but gravely injured." He replied to the ranger.

When they arrived on the hilltop, they found even more corpses. Thankfully, none of which showed any of their comrades (ergo the main party) so there was the great chance that they had escaped when the signal was sounded. However, there was still an alarming amount of human bodies here along with the Githyanki ones, revealing that this was where the human army was assigned, most of it anyway. Several of the survivors they had found (All Githyanki) were about, checking bodies and doing the occasional looting of something.

"Spread out." Ashracai told them as they jogged out to look. "She could be anywhere."

"My lord." A Githyanki soldier called out as the survivors gathered around the body of a fallen desecrated (a properly describing word) dragon, trying to lift it up. "We're getting empathic readings from underneath that beast. We could use some help."

"Change of plans, let's get there first." The archmage told them and all of them hurried to the dragon corpse. "I'm gonna enhance your strength on some of you guys so you can lift up this carcass. The rest of you guys pull out whomsoever is underneath. Careful though, they're most likely with crushed bones and limbs." He said that whilst directing his magic at those he designated as lifters, including Jashol. Symon was elected through a quick vote as the one to pull out the one under the carcass. "On the count of three, one, two, three."

The one they pulled out of there was Captain Ishin Saura, all bruised up and battered. Her arming sword, forged out of tempered steel and balanced perfectly, was covered in blood of the great beast. "Gnh..." She groaned heavily as they surrounded her, worried for her health of course. "...Some variant of... darkspawn..." She said weakly, held up by a few soldiers. "That... was worse than the Deep Roads on Thedas..."

"It's okay, captain. The enemy is vanquished this time." Ashracai comforted her. "What happened here?"

"We got flanked. Sons of whores and catamites came out of nowhere to attacked." Ishin reported, getting a groan as one was checking her leg. "OW! Watch it, will you?"

"And what of the Witch?" The archmage asked of her now. "Do you know what happened to her?"

"It's quite vital." Jashol added.

"We got separated. I got jumped by that dragon thing, me and a few others. I did manage to spot her and that human priest being confronted by something that shook my bones to their core. Next thing I know whilst fighting the dragon was this great flash of light and then that fraggin' corpse collapsed right on top of me." Ishin reported severely pissed, not caring about protocol. "Sir." She added at last, remembering who she was talking to.

"It's okay, captain. I'd be pissed myself if I got squashed for several hours." Ashracai remarked. "Was there anything specific to this, light?"

"I couldn't see much, I was under a carcass since then, in case you forgot, Sir." Ishin noted.

"Ah. So much for that." The archmage noted bluntly. "Alright, everyone, look for a small human girl with purple hair. She also has various ornaments, two rings, a listening device and a card." To help with the identification, he enlarged images of those items he mentioned, each giving a different turn. "See if you recognize any of these, then search immediately."

"Hey, you." A surviving soldier addressed another one some meters away, in an apparent clearing of the battlefield. "What are you doing, sneaking off like that?" To their response, the lone soldier started running off, only to be cut off by Ashracai who teleported right in front of him.

"Mind telling us why you ran off like that?" The archmage demanded to know in an authoritative tone. "What do you have there?" He did notice that the man was holding something in his hands.

"Eh, this? A-heh heh heh, It's nothing important. It's just something I bought back in Glathk for my mate." The soldier replied.

"Your tone and the sweatdrops on your head tell a different story." Ashracai cut him off immediately, having an angry tone now. "Come on, give me that and you might get off easily." He stretched out his own hand for the soldier, now getting more nervous, to comprehend. He eventually complied and extended his own hands to the powerful sorcerer.

"I swear, I found it like that." The soldier told him as Ashracai inspected what it was. A small, feminine, human hand. It had been blown clean off, but the hand didn't have the most pleasant way of getting lopped off. What was worst, was the ring on it. It was the Comptina Daemonia, Nodoka's ring. This used to be her right hand. "I swear to Hannahanna, I found it like that! I didn't mean anything ill, I just needed the funds to maintain a steady household." The soldier confessed a complete nerve wreck, flailing his hands around. The archmage's face grew more distasteful and twitches occurred on his eyebrows as he stared onto the small hand of his daughter. A flick of fingers and the soldier's neck snapped 180 degrees, killing him instantly.

"...Your soul will be guided to a new body shortly..." Ashracai said quietly, making the body glow faintly white, as to aid the soul find its way back to the Material Plane. "This does not look good at all..."

Symon and Jashol rushed up to the archmage's side and they were almost mortified at seeing the little hand. "Oh, shit." Jashol exclaimed, seeing it. "Now, what? We can't tell if she's dead or alive on this planet, and we don't know where she is!"

"Look, just, just calm down..." Symon tried to maintain his coolheadedness.

"Calm down!" Jashol cut off. "How can you calm down when the one we're supposed to look after is lost and severely hurt!"

"Shut up." Ashracai told him, but the human didn't listen.

"We're already wasting time when we should be out there looking for her! Else it be too late already and she's already fucking-!" He didn't finish that because of the stone fist he received to his face, making him lose control over his legs and falling down on the ground, hard.

"Don't you even **dare** finish that, young man." Ashracai had snapped under the pressure and had promptly punched him with his right fist, now turned to moving stone. "I have a good mind to vivisect you right here, right now for that." His hand changed back into the normal flesh and he turned his attention back to the hand. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to see what happened here..." He was going to use Psychometry, but a small, chuckling voice cut him off and spooked the others.

"There's no need to use that..." This voice said, coming from the ground. The one who spoke, wore a large black robe, hiding his identity, along with the hood. Blood red markings was spotted all over the robe, along with a pair of black gauntlets that were sharp on the end. Such design allowed for dangerously good slicing of an opponent. Finally, his face was covered by even more black, in this case, a mask. It was faceless, save for three red marks, and only his eyes could be seen through the mask. He chuckled some more before speaking again. "I know what happened here."

The archmage advanced immediately and took a good hold of where the figure's throat would be and lifted him up. "Well, then you better tell me now if you know what's good for you."

"I came." The figure answered immediately to him. "I'm the leader of the enemy army. Master of these... darkspawn as the good captain said." Ashracai had a good mind now to obliterate him now. "Now, now, I would not try that if I were you." The figure told him upon sensing his thoughts. "I am already battered, unable to move and my bones are crushed. I need no more damage bestowed on me."

"Well, you better have a good reason to stay my power." Ashracai said.

"You need information of what happened." The dark person said before giving a short laugh. "The hammer knows, the hammer knows." He said twice. Ashracai looked down to see a large warhammer, the symbol of the Platinum Dragon, Bahamut on it. He dropped the figure to the ground and picked it up next to a burnt corpse in heavy half-plate armor. The insignia on the armor marked the body out as that of a cleric in service to the human dragon god. Ashracai pierced into what the hammer had seen.

"_Foul spawn of Evil!" The old priest cried out as he cradled an injured Nodoka in front of the dark mage, as the battle raged around them. "Your unholy aura shall not be allowed to roam this world no more!"_

"_Foolish old man." The dark figure said, raising up a pair of powerful archons of Ice next to him. "I outpower you. But I shall be fair this one time. Hand over the little girl, and your soul shall be allowed to reach your god's side, so that he will know what's coming for him next."_

_Nodoka didn't speak out of fear, she simply shivered in terror as the figure's eyes watched her own. The old priest, in his armor, put her down for her to stand on her own feet and raised his hammer to the sky. "I fear not your powers. The mighty Dragon Father watches over me and through me will he smite you down."_

"_Come then, fool. I shall send you to the well of Oblivion for your insubordination." The dark mage said as his Archons charged at him._

"_Mighty Bahamut! I call on your strength!" The priest cried out in Draconic, a language the watching Archmage knew very well and rushed at the Archons first, crushing them with ease before rushing at the mage. He roared in anger and joy as he reached his mark despite the dark energies lashing out at him and raised his hammer high and then slamming it down on the mage, the hammer itself glowing violently._

The old priest had given his life in order to severely injure the mage and stop the darkspawn army in its tracks. His actions had destroyed the army in a literal flash, yet he hadn't destroyed the mage and it had cost him his life in the process. What's worst to come, it didn't reveal what happened to Nodoka after that. She was very much alive, he could tell that, but she was already injured in that flashback. Looking down on the little hand in his own, he decided to use the ring she was using. Well, she wasn't using it at the moment, so he was going to take it for himself this once. "...I can tell from my telepathic powers that you claim you have no name, abyssal mage." He turned on the battered sorcerer. "Well, this can change that easily..."

The sorcerer began to laugh, realizing that he was going to be questioned.

"So what is your true name?" Ashracai asked, wearing the ring on his index finger. Slowly, the ring acted on its own, scribbling in light what the figure's name was, slowly and in English letters, which he had learned whilst down on Earth. _Drinde..._ He repeated in his own mind. "Alright then. Drinde." He addressed the being, advancing on him and hauling him up violently. "You're all bruised up and unable to move and use your powers for a while, so I'll let you live this once if you'll answer but one simple question." He said before a loud growl escaped his mouth first as his skin turned into the scales of a dragon. **"Where's. My. Daughter?"**

"Oh, you would like to know that, don't you?" Drinde replied first, but seeing the fire in the Githyanki's eyes made him comply, after the gloating. "Know first that I can only be harmed by the power of the gods. That's why I was still on this cursed field to begin with."

"You did not answer my question." Ashracai countered immediately and Drinde complied this time.

"The Squidmen came. Came and took her away from here." He could see the fire fade away from the sorcerer's eyes.

"Squid...men?" Ashracai repeated.

"Squidmen and humans dominated by Squidmen." Drinde told him. "They carried her away from her once the fighting was over. A couple of hours ago. Would I lie to you?"

"If you had a will to die painfully, no." Ashracai's scales turned back into skin, only now it was getting crimson dark and the great cloak that the Archmage turned into bellowing smoke surrounding him. "_Well, Drinde..._" His voice now sounded dark and demonic this time, bringing Drinde's mask closer and then taking it off once, revealing his face only to him. "_You'd better hope that only the gods can harm you, because if something has happened to my daughter, then I shall personally cut you up into piny pieces, place them into coffins, bury them in a great lake and boil it for eternity. Nothing will come to your aid and you will not escape from there."_ He slowly turned back into his normal self, letting go of the undead sorcerer and putting the mask back on. "Rot here until your body fixes itself, if it can." He told him in his normal tone before walking away, followed by the two humans, heading up to the injured captain.

"Mylord?" Ishin Saura asked gently, seeing the look on his face.

"Gather what forces you have left and return to Glathk." Ashracai told her. "Every major power in Samasal needs to know what has transpired here. You could do well with some rest yourself."

"Yessir..." Ishin replied first and then nodding to the soldiers. "You sir? Where are you going?"

"The Illithids have revealed themselves." Ashracai replied, turning away along with the two clueless human men at the moment. "I'm going to hunt them down." The last three words of his sentence echoed, not across the valley, but across the whole of Tu'narath, into the mind of every adult Githyanki ready and willing to take up arms. When the image of Illithids came to their minds, many gave a howl of anger and grabbed the best available weapon they could find and start the hunt for their most hated enemy. It was also picked up by a flying goldfish in the skies above Samasal...

_The Illithids have been careless. Now they will pay for their crimes..._

_**Hours later, somewhere in the deepness of a mountain**_

Pain woke her up. Nodoka found herself under an unfamiliar ceiling, complete with dripping water in the background and dim light coming from somewhere. Looking down where the pain was, she found that her arm was missing and roughly treated, and it required someone's other hand to cover her mouth from screaming in shock. "**Don't **scream." The elder man in his apparent fifties told her, holding her tight so that she tried to get out of his grip. "They're expecting you to wake up any minute now. Then the true nightmare starts."

He allowed her to take a breath before she whispered back. "Who are you referring to?" To her surprise, he pointed immediately to a couple of passing humanoids. They were grotesque to look at. Black clothing covered most of their bodies, yet their heads weren't. And they reminded her of Cthulhu almost instantly. Four tentacles equaled as beards for them, giving them an octopus head. Small beads for eyes, varying from green to black to white, no ears. Clawed hands with only four fingers, thumb included had they. That was as much as she could make out of what she saw. But she knew this at least the moment she saw them.

She was almost certain that she would have her brains sucked out. _I knew that would come back to bite me!_

"Unconscious, now." He instructed her and she fell down to the floor immediately, as two of the great octopus humanoids came into the big cell, filled with humans, probably raised within these dank caverns and cages. One had the look of a fighter, as he wielded two vorpal blades made of some green crystal, and wore thick leather armor with metal plating in various places. The other seemed more of the mage category, dressed in a dark green robe with hood, with a pair of light blue orbs floating around his head. "Be still, breathe slowly and you'll be fine for now."

The two octopus persons stalked the hallways being made for them by the humans there, the fighter scowling and snarling at them, lashing out with his tentacles at whomsoever was stupid enough to try and stand in his way. The mage one followed gently in suit. Fortunately, this time, they weren't looking for the little bookworm in leather Linothorax armor. This time, they found a pair of humans huddled together, one strong and agile in body, the other smart and brilliant. Both were male.

Nodoka couldn't bear to watch, but she couldn't shut out the screams of those mortified to see what was going on. She could also picture what was going on there, when the cracking of bone came to her ears and then slurping began. She shivered out of sheer terror since she realized that could very well happen to her as well. Still she maintained her breathing to pretend being unconscious, but her thoughts were spiking in amounts of panic and minor calculations of how many days or nights she would last in here even if they went for her last of all.

Eventually, the slurping came to an end and the cries of those who knew the two victims were heard now. The two powerful eaters began to walk back out of the cell, their bellies filled to the brim with human brain substance. They quickly silenced the _crying_ and ordered through telepathy two humans to take the remains of their closely knit social members out of there, lest they start to stink and rot. Once the corpses had been dragged out and the two brain eaters began to leave the cell, the bookworm let out a breath of relief. "Thank goodness."

The fighter one stopped in its tracks, having heard something unusual. His mage companion noticed him stopping and turned attention to him. The fighter took a look into the cell, where Nodoka lay and the old man stared back, hoping to fool them into believing he had said it. It didn't work. Nodoka gave a hiss of pain as the cut off arm got worse for her. The guard took notice of that. "Oh, no." The old man said, now that the bluff was over.

The first of the octopus people began to advance on them, this time the prisoners tried to get in his way, but the mage pulled them off his companion using telekinesis and great glowing hands that appeared out of nowhere. The fighter got his blade out, as he approached the old man first, who rose up to stand up for the girl. He got impaled and tossed aside immediately, whilst Nodoka got hoisted up by the throat, being revealed to the guards. She didn't have her sword, which was not much of a surprise to her, as prisoners doesn't have much in weaponry when they get locked up in a cell. She did have her ring foci and her dagger, highly convenient. She had prepared well by hiding the dagger inside the armor, but it would be noticed if she tried getting it out.

And she didn't get the chance to cast a spell either, as she was pulled out of the cell along with the two remains, carried by the fighter out of there. They closed the cell door and despite the prisoners' pleas to leave the new arrival alone, hauled her away to some new vast chamber.

This chamber, having a few more of their kind with them, was circular and dark. It had no torches and such, no lights save for a constant blue glow emanating from the center of the chamber. Said center had stairs, which they walked up, to reveal a massive brain underneath a pool of the blue stuff. Another octopus headed person held Nodoka's sword, a good distance away from her. Had she the capability, she could try to run for the blade and then get the hell out of there, or at least get as far away as she could with her remaining arm before they shot her down.

First splash went down into the pool, and she saw that her sword had been tossed in. The pool began to glow more powerful. She struggled to get loose herself, but then she was tossed in herself. Once she got up, she coughed out the liquid that got down her throat in the process. "What? What is this?" She began to ask finally, given the chance to speak to them. "Why are you doing this?"

"_Those are not for us to answer, little human wizard."_ A voice called inside her, and she recalled the use of telepathy by the Githyanki. This was more clear, meaning these people were more powerful than the Gith.

"What do you mean?" She tried that direction of questions.

"_We were just instructed to bring you to the Elder Brain." _The same voice replied, the mage of the two gesturing with his hand. _"Something wanted you to be alive for the purpose of being here."_

"Eh?" The bookworm managed to get out before hearing the sound of dripping water right behind her. It was certainly something. Regretting that she would do so, she turned around to find yet another one of those octopus people, covered in the liquid as well, it dripping off him or her. The difference was that it had two more tentacles, longer than the other four and he was taller than the others if they were standing on the bottom of the pool, or maybe he was standing on the big brain just a bit higher up to look taller.

"_I really should thank you, wizard."_ The tall one told Nodoka in her mind as red silk came together with black velvet to form a robe for as he levitated out of the pool with her as well. _"You provided me with a proper vessel for me to channel my new body into."_

"A...vessel?" The bookworm repeated the words, until it hit her. "My sword. You used my sword."

"_Yes... and now I walk the planes yet again, instead of being trapped inside this community's Elder Brain." _The tall Octopus person somehow managed to chuckle, though it seemed almost disgusting to her. _"Now, let's see how your own brain fares. I myself haven't in a long time..."_ She was told and somehow resisted the urge to scream, since she knew it would not. All he did though, was wrap his tentacles around her head and stopped there. _"...You're in luck. You've suffered some brain damage. Not edible right now. I'll settle with someone else for now... Maybe I can put you to another use..."_

A loud bang somewhere in the distance was heard and echoed across the chamber, surprising everyone there. It took a while until another was heard, at the same volume. _"Mind Flayers!"_ A powerful voice echoed inside the chamber now, frightening the named beings. _"Your days of hiding from our sight are now over! Prepare yourselves, as retribution is upon your cursed community!"_

_That voice... Father?_ Nodoka thought as she somehow felt his magic presence outside the great caverns. Her own dad had come to save her from this apparent nightmare. The only thing that could make it better would be if Negi took her dad's place. _Wait, all this is happening for real!_

All Mind Flayers set to work immediately, receiving telepathic commands from the tall one with extra tentacles. The bookworm could only watch as they set to work to defend their home. As for her, the leader of these Mind Flayers had something else in store for her...

**

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A/N: Cutting it here, I need the little break. I'm also working on the Honeymoon. Could use a different title, though. Don't expect much in it at the start, but I promise you it will be interesting. It will take a while until I update this one. Now fasten your seatbelts again, this bumpy ride is bound for some big bumps!

**-The Ankhs are designed with one purpose to the readers: I don't believe in permanent character death. The Ankh of Extended Life is drawn orginally from Egypt, which arguably has a longer history of magic usage than Greece and even influenced it. But on the Ankh, you might think of it as a MacGuffin, albeit a minor one, but look at it this way: It can also work sadistically for those who want to torture people and keep them alive for as long as possible.**

**-I admit that I borrow a lot from Warhammer 40k, so let's add that to the big list of disclaimers once I get there.**

**-Drinde the Sorcerer is created by Twilight Kyu, another author here famous for the Rakenzarn Tales. I recommend reading them, though I'm ashamed at this stage to not have read them myself.**

**-Please don't flame me for hacking off Nodoka's arm, thank you.**

**-Final trivial note: If you have read Mentality by ST^, know this: No, I did not get the title 'Power of the Mind' from there. I invented it myself.**

**Well, that's it for now. Prepare for some major action going on in the next chapter when it's updated. Ciao!**


	40. Raid on Mt Ilsensine

**A/N: Before you start to listen to this; I recommend you load up the songs _Nemo, The Neverending Story, The Spell, Angels Crying, Still I Bleed, Battlefield, Hikari Sasuhou, Lovers End, Blood on My Hands, The Chosen Ones, A Little Moment of Desperation, JOINT, Ever Dream, She is My Sin, All About Us_ and _Paradise Lost_. I suggest starting with _Angels Crying_ first.**

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Again, the soldiers holding the battering ram slammed the great log with metal plating onto the great door. The Illithids may be clever at hiding the sites of their communities and cults, but once you find those sites, that's where they get real sloppy.

The Human village of Boa was more than generous to provide the Archmage, and Symon and Jashol with an army on behalf of the village's own cleric and priestess to the gods, Rad'na. Rad'na herself was a Githyanki, and more to the point, she knew Ashracai quite well from her days as a soldier and telepathic squad leader centuries ago. A level 10 telepath and armored in heavy chain-mail along with a mace and shield, she commanded the village soldiers in battle and healed them easily. Even so, these numbers would not be enough to storm the Mind Flayer lair.

"The Illithids are cunning." She told the Archmage, standing next to her. "Maybe you shouldn't have told them of what's to come."

"You don't know them the way I do, Rad'na." Ashracai replied. "You can't sneak up on them. There's only one way to attack them: Straight forward."

"I see." Rad'na replied. "Ie." She called to a young woman who had accompanied them to the mountain cave entrance. "Do you reckon we have a chance of surviving the full brunt of the Illithid counterattack?"

"No, Mistress." Ie replied with a bow. "I have doubts myself that we even get into the lair."

"I anticipated this much." Ashracai spoke up again, looking out the great view. "Illithids are many things bad, but stupid doesn't count among them. They realized when they came here that an attack would come sooner or later. That's why they used vanadium as material for the door."

"Vanadium?" Symon asked.

"There are more metals than copper, tin, iron, etc. in this universe, Symon." Ashracai explained to him. "We Githyanki travel the stars constantly and find various new materials to work with. We basically use what we got. Though I am quite surprised how it comes that you have two arming swords made out of Mithril, yourself."

"Huh? These? Oh, that's a long story, but we got no time for that, right?" The ranger said, hoping to get back on topic.

"Ah yes. Speaking of the Illithid situation, I did take the opportunity to call for reinforcements. Heavy reinforcements." He said, returning to Rad'na.

"Heavy, as in?" The cleric asked before a bright flash of light appeared a small distance from them.

"Finally found you guys." The familiar tone of High Queen Efromm's voice cut into their ears, revealing the blonde Githyanki monarch in plate armor and carrying a greatsword on her back. It was longer than her, and its specifics were uncertain. Next to her, stood another familiar face. The alliance and friendship between Druustya and Zuriith was no surprise, as High King Rufus, the only remaining human magic user native to Tu'narath and the most powerful lich as well, stood next to the Golden-Haired, in his own full plate armor, and wore a helmet that seemed almost skeletal in design and covered his normally rotten, dehydrated face. At least his blue eyes, or where it glowed most of all, could be seen. "Rufus had to come pick me up when Rad'na called me in telepathy that her band of soldiers found the Illithids."

"Not to mention that she had to put on her armor first and get the smallest sword she could get for this endeavor." Rufus added as well, much to Efromm's chagrin.

"Hey, I picked this one out of heavy consideration." She protested against the lich's statement.

"And I suppose that you couldn't have asked one of your knights who use, I don't know, **arming swords**, to give to you instead of picking a two-handed weapon, which is not really suited for close formations and tight spaces."

"Shut up, you stupid pile of walking bones." The Golden-Haired threw a minor tantrum. "Besides, this one at least is the one I got for when I face heavily armored opponents, remember?"

"Oh, right." Rufus said, dragging it out. "That explains why you took care with polishing the guard of it, doesn't it?"

"Damn straight." said a slightly mad Queen. "Still got that weapon of yours?"

"A-hem." The Archmage caught their attention. "Can we focus on what's to come, here?"

"Yes, yes, we'll be coming, Lord Ashracai." Efromm responded to him. "Are these everyone?"

"No. There will be more to come." Ashracai said. He was right in that more were coming to join them. He was just surprised to see the first of them to come. This one was a young girl, riding on a horse-sized red dragon. She herself wore black power armor and wore a shotgun over her shoulder. A helmet was with her, hanging on the side as well. And most wondrously, he knew who she was. "...Ah, I didn't expect to see you here on Tu'narath, little girl." He greeted her in a gentle tone.

"Then you could at least say my name, Ashracai-san." She replied, getting off her dragon mount. "We picked up a telepathic call for a fighter gathering and I was sent out to answer."

"Just you?"

"Just me." Asuna answered him. "We didn't get any details about this, so what's going on?"

"That, Asuna, is a long story. And I'm afraid there is no time to waste." Ashracai told her. "Put short though, we're on the hunt for Illithids. Mind Flayers. You'll know them when you see them."

"...Right." Asuna said, before getting a couple of handshakes from the blond Githyanki and the heavily armored old human, followed by two humans who accompanied the Archmage.

"Ah, the Emperor." Rad'na spoke up, looking somewhere else from them. "The Emperor has arrived."

"What?" Ashracai said, turning around. He was shocked to see the Emperor Himself appear. Clad in heavy power armor, much similar in design to the powerful Astartes they've fought before and colored black and white, he wore a great chain-mail tunic lined with golden edges and a hood, magically enhanced to hide his identity. Such cloaks were common on the planet, but not one made of chain-mail. He also had His powerful sword, a hand cannon holstered and an assault rifle with him. He was escorted by two of the Sword Stalkers. "...I'm surprised, old friend." Ashracai said, approaching the Master of the Imperium. "I didn't reckon you had the time to be here."

"The first Illithid hunt since the Imperium was ever founded, and I don't get to join in on the fun?" The Emperor said in a tone that would make anybody laugh whilst taking Ashracai's hand in return. "You know me better than that, Ashracai. I must be here. The fiends have been hiding here under our very nostrils like Ankhegs, and we've let them. I will not tolerate their presence here."

_That's the Emperor of the Githyanki? _Asuna thought, seeing the mighty fighter armed to the teeth. _I'd better not screw up here. I'm an enemy of these guys to begin with, so if I make one wrong move, and I'll definitely find out if this thing around my neck really works..._

The Emperor sensed her thoughts and chuckled lightly. "Don't worry, Asuna Kagurazaka. You may be a foe of ours, but we're all allies in the fight against the sadistic Mind Flayers. You're welcome in our warband more than ever now."

"Geh-!" The redhead jumped at the notion that he was a mind reader. "Er... thanks. I guess..."

"Can we storm the Illithids now?" Efromm asked, whining a little. "I'm eager to fight these guys."

"Not yet." The Archmage replied to her. "There is one last group to join us."

"One last group?" Jashol exclaimed, gaining their attention. "Pardon me, but the more time we waste up here, the lesser our chances of succeeding will be."

"And if we attacked now, then we wouldn't stand a chance at all." The Archmage replied to him. "Don't underestimate an Illithid. And wear that helmet I gave you."

"Fine, if that makes you happy." Jashol replied and put on his newly given helmet that covered almost the whole of his head..

"It will save your life." Ashracai responded with a hiss. "Ah, there they are." He said at last, as a band of about twenty four warriors approaching them slowly up the mountain. They all wore hoods and cloaks, but the newcomer Asuna could see several distinguishing features. They looked very much like Githyanki, but they had more cat like eyes instead of the red bloodshot or black beaded eyes of the Yanki. They also looked more leaner and graceful on their feet, whereas the Yanki looked more clumsy with their own big feet. These guys had more smaller ones. None of these had any weapons out, save for a few staffs, and there was only one of them who openly revealed he had a dagger. One stood out. He had gray skin, no mouth, glowing eyes and dreadlocks. He also was armored the most, in heavy apparent power armor underneath the hood and a pair of armguards that would probably double as his weapons. It was most likely energy weapons, but she herself couldn't figure what they would form. "Oh, boy, another dimension crossed case..." She heard the Archmage mutter before he stepped forward to greet these newcomers. He addressed the armored figure first. "En Taro Adun, good Protoss fighter. I have not seen your kind here for many years."

"En Taro Tassadar, it is now." The armored figure replied in kindness first, but a harsh tone. "We come here seeking foes to fight, say my comrades here."

"As I suspected." Ashracai said, turning now to the monk like figures, all who stood still. "You taking in outsiders now, Githzerai? Not like you zealous baldheads." He had a much different tone to them.

"At least this one was willing to learn from us, not like you simpleminded thugs who like swords." One stepped forward, as a couple of soldiers approached the leaders of the growing warband.

"Oh?" Ashracai said. "We prefer at least peaceful, **stable** planes for our homes, not chaotic, constantly moving grounds shifting beneath our feet. How's that working for you? Must be hard to get food, I hear."

"This coming from a parasite moving from one corpse to another just because the last one had a fingernail out of order. What was it this time, your favorite one to chew on?"

"Oh, **now** you monks start talking dirty. I thought you guys had some sort of taboo of talking like that?"

"Not when it comes to addressing dumbfounded knuckleheads."

"Bald, atheistic fools." Ashracai snapped at her, as they gathered a crowd to themselves.

"Religious rotten morons." She snapped back.

"Tranquility hippies."

"Battle hungry buffoons!"

"Buddha enthusiasts!"

"**Slaves to a dead whore!**" She yelled at him, getting a couple of daggers out of her hood.

"**Traitors to your own kind!**" He yelled back, starting to glow violently red, his eyes flaring up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Asuna tried to break the tension between the two different races, but to no avail. "We're all here to fight a common enemy here, not each other! Have you both forgotten that!"

Both of them paid her no heed, as the hatred burning between them was too strong. Eventually, the Archmage's glow faded off. "...Here to hunt Illithids?"

"This is our _Rrakkma_, in case you haven't noticed." She replied at least, sheathing her daggers. "We hunt the Old Foes as well."

"Ui?" The redhead noticed the sudden change of tone toward each other.

"Well then, I wish you good fighting on your part and good luck." Ashracai said, taking a bow to her, and she returned it.

"Race you to the Elder Brain, freak." She told him as her warrior along with the 'Protoss' prepared themselves for battle.

"See you there then, baldie." He returned the insult with a smile on his face, walking back to the Emperor's side.

"...Weren't you guys at each others' throats, just then?" Symon asked completely confused about the whole conversation, Asuna standing next to him.

"Nah, just saying 'Hello' to each other." The Emperor answered him. He turned His attention to the human soldiers who had come out of the small cave where the door was. "Why have you stopped? Is the door down already?"

"Er, no, Sir." One answered him, obviously the oldest of the bunch. "We tried bashing it down with all our strength, but the door is strong to be of normal Steel. There's no way we could break it down."

"What?" Efromm asked him and took a look inside the cave. "Don't you guys know how to open a door? …Alright. Stand back, and let me handle this one." She said, dropping her sword on her back down to the ground, and made a few movements with her feet to mimic chalking them. "Whew." She let a breath she didn't know she had there for a moment before focusing her eyes on the big door. She initially took a few slow steps forward, but picked up speed rapidly. In full sprint, she noted two stone pillars a distance away from the door. With those, she could gain recoil and from there, more power. Even at full speed, she jumped up on to the right one first, before jumping over to the left one, landing on its side with her foot. Then she kicked away from the pillar to head straight for the door. Her foot connected bulls-eye on the door...

_And it **shattered** into metal fragments an instant later..._

Efromm landed not exactly gently on the floor behind the door, but she didn't have it rough. Rising up, she cracked her neck as it had been stiff all along. Upon that she entered and the noise quieted down, scores of thralls, people enslaved by the Illithids through mind domination, charged straight at her armed with swords and shields, their unseen masters hoping first to overwhelm the woman by sheer numbers. She smirked as she went for hand-to-hand until the others came through the door.

What happened next, wasn't pretty. Every opponent she hit with her fists and kicks through her own refined and perfected _Vertoth_ was literally obliterated, blown into tiny bloody pieces, with major thanks to her own Psychokinesis. A shame she could not perform ranged attacks with it, otherwise she'd dominate the whole damn chamber. None of her opponents got to touch her.

Well, one got to. But this was no thrall. It was a gigantic purple worm like creature with Illithid tentacles at its mouth, and swirled its way through the great entrance chamber towards her. Ancient records named this beast a Neothelid, an old Illithid tadpole, or larvae, that failed to undergo its maturity but survived anyway. "THE FUCK IS TAKING SO LONG?" She screamed back at the others, still outside the door.

The Neothelid slammed down on her, its tentacles trying to get hold of her head. She forgot her helmet, so it went immediately to try and crack open her skull and devour the brain inside. But the blond wasn't going to get eaten that easily. Her own superstrength allowed her to hold the great worm back, for some time. Her foot slipped slightly, and that was all the Neothelid needed at the moment, pressing her back against a wall. Its big mistake was to let go of her to give out a roar of pleasure at eating. She took the chance to perform the psychic equivalent of a shundo to get to a sword and take hold of it, whilst the Neothelid slammed its head right where she used to stand, dizzying it for minutes. The sword was way too small for her to cut off the head of the beast, but she noticed a big stalagmite in the roof above the beast. _Got one shot at this!_ She thought as she literally bended the vanadium blade into a form of boomerang and throw it at the stalagmite.

Her luck was in swing (no pun intended) as the boomerang blade hit the root of the rock formation and started to crash down, right onto the great purple worm. The Neothelid was impaled on it, but it was still alive. At that time, the other members of the warband entered, seeing the great worm. "Took you boys long enough." Efromm said, catching the boomerang blade without seeing it. "I could really have used some help there."

"Help?" Rad'na repeated the word, seeing the great worm struggle in its attempts to get loose. "Why would someone like you need help?"

"Thing is, Rad'na." Efromm addressed her. "The chance of that thing eating my brains out was immense. I was lucky, that's all." She told the cleric as Rufus tossed her her sword to her and walked to the beast's head to finish it off. Once that business was done. "I played my success by one shot, and I got lucky. Had I missed, I'd probably be dead when you got to me."

"Perhaps." Rufus said, looking over the corpses that the blond had done.

"Alright, alright." The Emperor said stepping forward. "This was only the first step. They will most likely send everything they have in these tunnels at us. We need to dig in here and fortify this cave to make sure that we can get out of here with ease."

"That's a good start, but we need to find the Elder Brain if we are to end this community." Ashracai said bringing up a form of hologram showing a suggestible map of the tunnel network based on the amount of entrances there were in the main entrance chamber. "I suggest a strike team go into a tunnel to find the brain, going deeper and deeper into the mountain."

"I thought of that as well." The Emperor replied, several of them going around whilst the Sword Stalkers along with Ie the young woman directed the soldiers around them to take defensive positions. "We can't bring any of the soldiers with us, it's most likely too dangerous if any of they came along."

Several of them mumbled amongst themselves, before a certain redhead had a look at them. Amidst the mumbling was which tunnel to take. "Hey." She called to them. "I don't know about you guys, but where I'm from, it's usually the center tunnel that leads to the heart of the enemy dungeon." She pointed at the tunnel, gesturing with her finger how they should go. "We follow that, we might get to this 'Elder Brain' that you spoke of. The best of us go as the strike team towards there and the rest stay behind holding this chamber. Course, one of the best will have to stay here and direct the defenses so they don't fail while the strike team is away from here."

They all studied the map briefly and held a telepathic chat between each other first, discussing this. "Alright. We'll play it that way." The Emperor said first. "Efromm will stay here and hold the defenses with Symon and Jashol. Most Githzerai will also stay here, along with my escort."

"In the meantime, us, ergo, the Emperor, me, Rad'na, three Zerai, our Protoss friend here, Rufus, and you, Asuna will go as the strike team." Ashracai said.

"Eh? Me too?" Asuna responded surprised.

"Excuse me." Rufus said, stepping up. "I'd like to stay behind and hold the line as well. Efromm is a good strategist, but we'll need two cool heads here to make we don't get overwhelmed."

"Very well, old friend." The Archmage said. "The rest of us will go. I hope there are no objections to that."

"No."

"Nope."

"None."

"Er... no?"

"Not at all."

"Good." He said, hearing them all. "Lastly, I took the liberty of getting all our Servant cards with me." He said whilst pulling out seven different cards, much like what Asuna saw back home. "Anyone care to join me?" Most took a card from his hand, whilst he kept the best to himself. "Saber." He called forth the great Githyanki Hero.

"Berserker." The Emperor said, having picked that card, summoning forth a massive man in power armor much like his own, colored crimson and wielding a great axe along with a huge hand cannon.

"Rider." Rad'na held the card, summoning forth a beautiful lady, who was quite shorter than the rest, with yellow hair, strikingly blue eyes, whilst wearing a leather outfit, equipped with a bow, a slender sword and a dirk at her side.

"Um..." Asuna was the last to call forth a Servant. "Lancer." This one was a slender and beautiful woman, with blue hair and somehow pointy ears. She looked human, at least overall. She wore blue colored scant clothing, revealing more than was normally allowed, even back home on Earth. She did sport a long black lance, hence her title Lancer.

"Now then, we are assembled." The Emperor said, starting to walk off to the central tunnel. "I'll take point. Talk to each other to say goodbye, should Death come for us. And give hints as well, we'll need every available advantage here." With that, the Master of the Imperium, followed by Berserker marched off into the tunnel, followed shortly by the Protoss and Rad'na along with Rider. Ashracai took his time to talk to Symon and Jashol.

("I'm afraid you'll have to stay here. You'll do more effect here than with us.") He told them gently. ("I can however, grant you some protection and power-up. It should keep you at least alive to hold the line.")

("Understood, Sir.") Symon nodded at him. ("We'll help the High Monarchs.")

("Just bring her back here alive, Sir.") Jashol told the Gith. ("I don't care what happens to me, I'd skewer you on the spot, should she be dead.")

"What are they saying to each other?" Asuna asked aloud, watching the trio talk. She couldn't understand the native language on Tu'narath.

("Nodoka is as important to me as life is to mortals. Everyone clings onto it. I could never forgive myself if anything happened to her. And, heh, Rad'na **does** possess it in her power to bring back the dead.") He replied gently. ("And I would actually let you skewer me, Jashol.")

_He mentioned Honya-chan!_ Asuna thought to herself. _Oh, I knew that she would be part of this. Best talk to him once we're on our way._ Ashracai turned to her and the Zerai who were waiting for him.

"Now let's go. We're in for some nasty surprises up ahead." He told them and they were all off.

"Alright, Boys and girls!" A Sword Stalker called their attention. "Pardon my foul language at the moment, but shit's about to hit the fan and we're it. Stick together and DON'T fight the enemy alone. Find someone to pair up with and work as a team, got it!"

"I'm taking command here!" Efromm called out as well. "Just do as he said and we'll get out of this alive!"

"Hey, there's one of us missing!" A soldier from Boa called out.

"Oh no, don't tell me..." The blonde started off, but she was cut off by the sounds of rapidly approaching footsteps.

* * *

The strike team reassembled rather quickly, as the vanguard of it had encountered some thralls to take on at first. "Took you guys long enough." Rad'na called to them as they joined up. "Party's getting started without you."

"Had to take care of something, first." Ashracai replied first. "Hope you didn't get too many."

"Nah, seven men and a pigface, that's all."

"More on the way." The Protoss alerted them all and the Emperor cocked his assault rifle, whilst the grey skinned warrior prepared his psi-blades from his bracers. "No psychic energy from them."

"Illithids are hiding from us so far." A Zerai monk said quietly as about two dozen of the thralls charged at them, armed with whatever they had to arm themselves: sticks, rocks, at least some of them had actual blades. Pity, most of them thought.

The Emperor scored the first kills of them with his rifle, its laser rounds cutting right through the bodies. Then came Rider and Berseker up on the scene first, the former elegant slicing the thralls with her sword, the latter on the other hand butchering them with his great axe that roared to life with every strike he made home. Just the three of them alone were powerful enough to hold back this wave. "Let's press on. Maybe the increasing intensity is a hint that we're going the right way."

"Indeed." A Zerai answered to the armored Yanki before catching a smell with his nostrils. "Here's another one!" He cried out, pulling somebody out of the shadows.

"Argh! Put me down!" The man called. It was a young man in his early twenties, wearing a cloth vest over his padded armor, with fingerless leather gloves, along with the obligatory helmet everyone had been told to wear. Finally, he held a spear that had a tip of an unusual metal.

"Who the?" The Emperor asked, seeing him.

"Put him down." Rad'na instructed the monk. When he failed to comply the first time, she repeated the words harsher. "And what are **you** doing here, young man?" She turned her attention to the stalker of the team.

"Ah, well, you see, funny story, really..." He tried to get out of it, but to no avail. There is no point trying to lie to a telepath, never mind the most powerful one in the Imperium. "Okay, okay, I tagged along, following you. I thought I might be able to help from the shadows."

"And what if an Illithid came to attack you?" Rad'na went that road immediately. "You think we would have come to your aid?"

"Who is this human? We only took Asuna with us on this one." Ashracai asked to know. The human straightened his jacket first.

"I'm Omaith, son of Loraith. I'm from the village of Boa. Next to Rad'na, I'm the best fighter in Boa." He introduced himself.

"Not good enough to stand on our level, I'm afraid." The Archmage replied to him, towering in height. It was quite common that Githyanki were taller than humans, due to a higher protein diet. "You should go back to the entrance hall. The others there are surely worried where you are and probably would demand that you return to your post."

"I tried to earlier, since I was under strict orders, but shortly after you guys left, a swarm of these 'thralls' as you call them attacked the main entrance and I was cut off. Been unable to go back since." Omaith answered him. The Emperor sighed in response to that.

"...Alright, alright, you can tag along." He told the young man, who lightened up in his mood. "But you'll stay in the rear, watching our backs." He told him sternly, pointing at him.

"Er... yes, Sir." Omaith hesitated at first.

"One last thing though." The Master of the Imperium said before turning to his own assault rifle. He pushed a button on the side, making a blue lightbulb inside turn red. Then he opened the main body of the gun upward, revealed a small chunk of metal inside a small space right behind the barrel. He removed the metal and through telekinesis lifted up a pair of daggers that the thralls had with them. Removing the blades of them, he handed the metal over to Ashracai, who took it altogether and molded it together in his hand. The result was a full chunk of metal for the small space. The Emperor placed it inside, closed the weapon, pushed the same button to make the lightbulb turn blue again and retracted a small lever on the side. Then he tossed the rifle over to Omaith. "Feel the weight."

The young man caught it, barely, but held it in his arms. Having never used or seen a weapon like it before, he had to ask. "What is it?"

"That, is my personal, custom upgraded M-8 Avenger (1) assault rifle, using mass accelerator technology. Basically it uses magnetic coils to send tiny pieces of metal against the enemy. With that chunk of metal I just put in, it'll be days before you need to replace it. Just be careful, though, kid. It has an inbuilt heat system which makes the rifle overheat the more you fire it. Don't worry though, it would take up to an hour before that would happen."

"With that in mind, Sir, how do you fire it?" Omaith wondered curiously.

"Just aim," The Emperor gestured with his arms. "And squeeze." He flicked with his finger to show how. Omaith inspected the weapon to see the vital components he needed to know about. And then he nodded. "Good. Now let's move on, we're wasting enough time here."

* * *

The defenses were holding so-so. So far, four attacks had been repelled by them, but they had lost about six of them. Some would call it minor casualties... if the village soldiers didn't number less than 40. Not to mention, the village elder's son Omaith was missing was also a blow to their morale. The SS and the two High Monarchs were holding up, but they were in command until the strike team came back, so they had to show resolve and determination. The oncoming thralls had been relentless, but their Illithid masters didn't show any remorse in having them seek for cover or anything. Swarming the enemy seemed enough to them.

Rufus had a solution to their numbers, but Efromm had rejected, as Necromancy was not very welcome in some circuits, despite its practicality. The lich did convince her to use the spell, but only if it had come to it for getting out of there. Let's just say that there was a lot of bodies for him to use when that came.

"Another wave coming in!" A Stalker called to them, from the left tunnel. His dark-vision goggles allowed him to see what it was this time, and he didn't like it. "Uh... Sir?" He called to Efromm. "I think we need to use those big guns on this one." Fortunately, the enemy was a good distance away, but the chatter was almost already killing ears.

"Why?" Efromm asked, as the other SS came by for those guns. When an elite soldier calls for something, you bring it.

"Because..." He handed her the goggles. "There's a huge swarm of 'nids heading this way, ready to eat us all. We need the guns, else we're all dead."

One look through the goggles was all she needed. "Set them up! All four!" She shouted, making them all move their asses. "You two!" She pointed at Symon and Jashol. "Get your asses over here **now**! We gotta go, gotta go, gotta go!"

They all scrambled to set up the mass accelerator twin miniguns with explosive rounds and thermal clips on holding for the firing chamber. The Stalkers showed the humans rather fast how to fire and told them not to worry about ammunition running out. "Right. We're ready." The first stalker reported.

"Don't worry about aiming, boys." Efromm said, as the eyes of the fiends appeared in the tunnel at last. She herself prepared a couple of heavy hand cannons in her hands. "They're too many for that."

"FIRE! FIRE!" A Stalker yelled as he pressed down the firing mechanisms on his miniguns hard. The others followed soon after.

Of all the foes that the Imperium of Gith had encountered over the millenia since its founding, the Great Devourer was by all accounts and then some, the worst. Endless numbers, terrifying psychic powers on their own, massive bio-organisms, along with tiny bugs in comparison beyond count or sometimes recognition, the Tyranid was the worst kind of enemy any would dread to encounter. Even with all the firepower, with all magic and technology, plus all the manpower the Imperium could muster at the same time, the Devourer could gladly throw out a million more for each of those individual soldiers. All attempts to gain some control over them had failed horribly in the past, and further attempts led only to them being lured to the mind trying to take control. After one such incident, the Githyanki had made that their policy against fighting the 'nids, whenever they crossed into that dimension. Which in turn brought up the question of **how the fuck **did the Illithids manage to gain control when the Yanki couldn't.

These Tyranids, fortunately, were only gaunts, footsoldiers in service to the Hive Mind. Every Tyranid was just one massive organism that belonged together under one single mind; The Hive Mind. These gaunts were minor creatures and had no greater effect to it, should they die. The real danger in them, was their endless number. For every Tyranid shot down by a minigun, thirty more at least took its place.

Symon and Jashol fired like crazy, wondering how the killing machines even worked. Every now and then, a detachment from the minigun would eject itself, to allow another hanging on to a chain of the clips to insert itself in the weapon. More and more just kept coming at them. Seconds of firing turned into hours for them. The only thing reminding them how much time had passed, was the firing of High Queen Efromm's own two pistols. She shot any 'nid that passed a certain limit, but having to reload more often.

Rufus and the others could only watch as the five gunners shot down the enemy by the thousands. No other thrall dared come closer, as the Tyranids frightened everything, it seemed. Eventually though, it had to come to an end.

They had killed so many as over 6000 of the bugs, though they had lost count themselves. Out of the exhaustion of shooting so many, all five gunner were breathing heavily, looking at each other. "...Why am I smiling over the shock?" Symon asked loudly finally.

"Welcome to the world **we** inhabit." The Stalker to his right commented him.

"Tyranids of all things!" Efromm got out of herself, having dropped to one knee. "The Illithids have certainly grown in power since the Githyanki's last encounter with them. The records never said anything of them being in control of something like this."

"Times are always changing, Efromm." Rufus told her, walking up to put a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know what it's like out there, but if you need to use weapons like those, I guess life here's a lot more easier than we actually thought."

"Yeah." She confirmed for him. "This planetside is a form of retirement for us, to be honest. Enough pleasantries." She rose up and pointed at Rad'na's chosen companion. "Ie, was it? Contact your mistress and tell her that we got Tyranids here. The Emperor is going to be pissed."

Ie didn't reply, but only concentrated her thoughts towards her mistress. Sadly though, a stalker spotted something. "There's another one!" He opened fire first, but this Tyranid was smarter and faster than the others. It was also strong enough to smash through rock, shocking the gunner. This was no Gaunt. This was a Tyranid Warrior, and it seemed very hungry indeed.

"Move!" Efromm hurled Jashol backwards and took hold of the gun herself, slamming the triggers down. But the Warrior was too fast for her to shoot and it smashed right through them, claiming the head of one Stalker and sliced right through Symon's chest. Its real target however, was the young woman that had tried to concentrate her thoughts and was now paralyzed in fear.

Somehow, miraculously for Ie, Jashol was there as well, and he was sporting his mysterious spear again. Without thinking, he vibrated with his spear directly in front of the beast and in an instant later:

_It had been impaled in the jugular upon his spear, and time stopped for everyone..._

The great beast collapsed eventually, landing on its side, the spear still stuck in its throat, and Jashol shivering like crazy over what he had just done. He fell to his knees, and started to laugh over the shock. "Why am I laughing? I shouldn't be laughing."

"How'd you do that?" Rufus asked, tending to the fighter who was starting to breathe heavily.

"Long story." Was the reply. He did get a hug from behind by the beautiful woman as a thanks.

* * *

As they hurried towards their destination, the more and more intense the resistance in their path was. Asuna was right when they had started. No illithid communities would be this hostile in defenses save for the Elder Brain. The combination of them was amazing. The frontline fighters was guarded from the rear by the Emperor, Ashracai, a Zerai monk who threw darts that came back to his hands, and Omaith the new kid. For being introduced to a gun that early, he was handling himself rather well. Guess that old proverb about humans generally did ring true. (2)

The Emperor had been prepared, obviously, and chose a small hand cannon, a Carnifex He called it, along with His master crafted blade that had been forged for Him out of an ancient dragon bone. It roared with active blue flames and cauterized any fool daring to attack them. His pistol, as it seemed in his hand (Asuna at least was convinced 'twas a cannon) blasted asunder any further targets ahead of them first, along with Omaith's shooting. Lucky for the rest, the Archmage had been telekinetically directing the gun so that it would only hit the enemies. Otherwise, Rad'na would have been forced to use her healing powers more than a couple of times.

"This area's clear." The Protoss reported as his own psychic powers sensed no living creatures but themselves nearby. "I suggest we move on."

"Hold on." Rad'na stopped them. "I just got a telepathic call from Ie." A pause and then she told the rest. "We got Tyranids in these tunnels. The defense team gunned down just about some 5000 of the things."

"Shit." The Emperor said in reply, before remembering who was present in the tunnel. "Apologies, Rad'na. This does not bode well."

"Hey, what's a Tyranid?" Asuna asked.

"Believe me, Asuna." The Master of the Imperium told her. "You don't wanna know."

"Let's keep moving, lest we attract the beast ourselv-" Ashracai said but was cut off by Saber holding an arm up, the universal signal to stop, and who later smelled the air frequently. "What is it?"

"...I smell **them**." Saber replied, her voice filled with bloodthirst. Ashracai had never seen her this thirsty for enemy blood before, which could only mean that the Illithids were nearby. "Form defensive circle **now**." She instructed everybody and they complied.

"Rad'na, Ashracai, Omaith. You take the inside. Everyone else, shift around to confuse them. Mind Flayers, I hear travel in packs." The Emperor instructed them, shutting off the flames from His sword for once and then all light silenced down. There were only two sounds making themselves at the time: The sound of footsteps as they shifted positions, and Saber's growling. She really hated the Mind Flayers.

Everybody was on their toes. The Githzerai were the most agile, one daring to jump over the Archmage, using his head as a base. That was forgiven. Asuna had her shotgun out, trying to pump it silently. It was certainly her first time using a real firearm, yet it felt home in her hand. The sleek handle, the little trigger underneath her finger, and the power of the thing. The thought that just one pull of the tiny trigger could kill someone, gave her some feeling of mundane power. But she didn't like it. Tatsumiya-san was the gun expert, not her.

A nagging feeling clawed at the back of her head, and she couldn't place it. But then, she was reminded of what Karl-san had built into the armor. He had devised a danger system that telepathically alerted her to enemies nearby. The clawing at the back must be suggesting that danger is right behind her. She wasted no time, in the belief that it was real danger since the Githyanki didn't take risks, spinning around and pumped it loudly, directing the barrel at a Githzerai monk, who ducked immediately at seeing the gun pointed at her.

The boom was sounded over the whole tunnel and every light they had went up. What Asuna had shot wasn't one of the Fiends. They recognized it as a Hormagaunt, one of the Tyranid. "Nice shot." Rad'na complimented the redhead. "How'd you know?"

"Kinda just did, I guess." Asuna replied. "What is that, anyway?"

"That, is a Tyranid. A small one." Ashracai told her. "Don't worry, it's dead now."

"Huh." Asuna said before turning back to the others. "And here I thought we'd be in real tro-" she was cut off by the flash of a teleportation, and then most of the team was flying away from the center. An armored Cthulhu like creature with blades and four tentacles in his face had appeared and attacked them all. Berserker had not been thrown off so easily, but he was diverted through sheer dexterity of the attacker that he slammed into a charging Saber and both Servants crashed into the cave wall. Rider had been choked and Lancer smacked down hard. How the thing managed to hurl the Emperor away was a mystery. But the thing was reaching out for the redheaded girl now, taking hold of her head. "Hey, get off me!"

He didn't pause, just slamming her head against the wall deliberately, before grabbing her from behind. "Someone get this guy off me – Ahhhhh!" She screamed in pain as the Cthulhu lookalike grabbed around her head with his tentacles and she could feel his mouth on the top of her head, literally. The cracking of bone could be heard and that's where the real pain began for her. Fortunately, it was short lived.

An armored figure came to her rescue, shoving himself into the two, making the monster let go of her, and she fell forward into Rad'na's arms, who proceeded to heal her. They couldn't see anything, just hear the wrestling scuffles of the two, until a neck was clearly heard snapping and then a thud.

"Oww..." Asuna complained as their healer saw to her head injuries. "What the hell was he trying to do?"

"Eat your brains out, that's what." Rad'na told her. "That's their diet. That one must have been real desperate going after you. Granted, you didn't wear your helmet..."

Heavy footsteps came towards them and the Emperor came out, his armor slightly torn and scratched. His chain-mail hood still covered His face, but now the redhead could see His right eye looking straight at her. He picked up her own helmet and stepped up close to her. "First rule when fighting Illithids." He said, using telekinesis to set her hair into a bun and then set the helmet, covering her body completely in the heavy armor. "Always wear a helmet."

"...Great." Asuna replied, getting up again and holding her shotgun, her voice slightly changed due to the helmet. "Now I know that."

"Come on, now." The Emperor said, checking His Carnifex gun and firing up His sword again. "We have to get going. The attack from an Illithid can only mean one thing: The Elder Brain is just a stone throw away from us." Even though His face was covered by the cloak, Asuna could certainly tell that He was smiling with pride.

* * *

The mighty gate made out of Mithril, light as feather and as hard as the toughest scales on a dragon, gave way before the explosion that blew right in front of it. Through it came the strike team. Winded but all alive, the team had entered the primary chamber of the community. Ergo, they were in the presence of the Elder Brain itself. The room was dark with the only light being weak and coming from a pool. They heard at least the splash of water.

There was a tall fellow standing up a long way of stairs that was in the center of the room, this one had two additional tentacles, both were longer than the rest. He himself was clad in a magnificently ornamented red silk robe, with this glowing green orb levitating around his head. "Greetings, former slaves of my people!" He greeted them, extending his arms. "You have done well, coming this far. I now ask you for your surrender. If you comply, your lives will be spared to masseuse our heads."

"Arrogant piece of-" Ashracai mumbled to himself before responding. "You got a lot of nerves asking our surrender when you are on the **losing** side, Illithid!"

The Illithid merely laughed at him. "Who said that I was losing? You've fallen into our trap, slave." At that, the light behind him glowed stronger, to reveal scores of his kind, armed with wands and blades, thralls with spears and so forth, all around them. "Ah! But there's more." The leader spoke again as one more thrall, this one male by the body structure, flying above the pool. "I have one last trick up my sleeve as I believe the proverb is."

One final light, revealed a small form below him. It was hard to tell at this point who this one was, but thirsty for blood, Berserker didn't care. "Outnumbered or not, all shall give their skulls to the Throne!" He roared as he charged against the front figure at the staircase, only to be outdone quite perfectly in speed and skill by it, and hit hard enough by a right fist to be slammed back again. At that point, the robe fell off. _Save me._ A voice called to them inside their minds. Most recognized that voice.

"Oh, no..." the Archmage muttered as he saw Nodoka, stripped of armor and clad in a simple tunic, emotionless in gaze and holding the pose of a mentally dominated person. Where there used to be flesh, blood and skin, there was now a green crystal as her new right arm. It matched perfectly right now to the fingers on her. But she wasn't herself at the time.

"Oh, yes." The lord of the Illithids replied, hearing him. "She makes excellent material. I think that she'll stay for life down here, as my own personal masseuse and bodyguard. She seems quite pleased with this revelation."

"Master..." Saber looked at the Archmage, who was starting to look furious. Then she noticed his hand going dark, much like that boy they saved back on Earth. "What?"

"Okay, that is it." Ashracai spoke loudly enough for everyone in the chamber to hear, removing his cloak and handing it to Rider, who took it graciously. "I've been putting up with a lot of shit lately. I can tolerate being blown up in a body, being forced to conduct embarrassing acts in front of people I don't know nor bother to..."

_Save me. _Nodoka's real voice was echoed in his head.

"...humiliate myself for those who see it to their amusement, hearing our ancient savior being called a whore by those who betrayed us at the climax of our rebellion against you fucking Illithids..."

_Save me._

"Hearing you ramble on that we still are slaves to you and demand our surrender, which is not acceptable whatsoever..." Ashracai said as his whole body grew black while his eyes went red and familiar runes to the armored redhead girl at least.

_Save me._

"But **nobody**, and I fucking mean this, harms and dominates MY DAUGHTER!" He roared loudly enough to make the whole chamber shake in compliance to him and after that, a demonic roar was heard throughout the whole mountain. The sight in front of them was terrifying, to the Mind Flayers at least. The most powerful Sorcerer of the Imperium, spanning of up to over 16 different worlds and moons, not counting outposts, had now for once in more than 5000 years, turned to demonic magic again, all in the purpose of battling Mind Flayers again.

Being dominated, Nodoka didn't respond physically, only held up her new crystal arm, and have it extend into a long spear, with the pointy end at where her elbow should be.

_Is that Magia Erebea he's using?_ Asuna thought as the dark Archmage charged forward, and the dominated bookworm did likewise, displaying her deadly elbow. Ashracai paid her no heed, as he went right through her, and headed straight for the Illithid leader. "Alright, everyone!" She called out, pumping her shotgun. "Let's give them Hell in reply!"

"For revenge!" Several of the Gith yelled in compliance as they charged.

"Show them the fury that we've been denied for so long onto them!" The Emperor yelled, charging from the front. Omaith just kept his mouth shut as he had nothing to say against the Illithids, and fired his assault fire.

"En taro Tassadar!" The Protoss yelled, his energy blades firing up, and he took heavy fire from the first flying servant.

"Blood for the Blood God!" Berserker roared, charging alone against another flank.

"Come on, little girl," Rad'na called running to the controlled bookworm, displaying her mace and shield ready. "It's between you and me." _"I'll save you, but it's going to hurt, I'm afraid."_

_It's okay._ Nodoka replied to the cleric woman. _I'm not afraid of getting hurt this time._

"_Good." _That was all that Rad'na told her before the two commenced battle. Their movements matched almost perfectly, the bookworm being the more skilled fighter, whilst Rad'na had a big shield which slowed her down. Fortunately for the older woman, she didn't need to be as agile as the young human. She blocked most of the attacks that Nodoka dished out to her, and those who made it through the defense, hit on the chain-mail armor.

Rad'na was biding her time, whilst watching the rest, though. The Servants held their own flanks against the thralls, save Saber, who slaughtered Illithids who had surrounded her. In truth, she had jumped right into their ranks and hacked and slashed them apart with her sword. The Emperor commanded the whole team with ease, whilst shooting and cutting down Mind Flayers and thralls alike with his combination of sword and hand cannon tactics. Omaith just gunned them down, cautious as to keep them away from him. And the redhead girl with the shotgun, had folded it back onto her shoulder and utilized some impressive hand-to-hand combat techniques along with knee strikes and kicks. She was almost lazily bashing them away.

Ashracai on the other hand had gone enraged in that dark magic he was practicing. She had picked up thoughts from Asuna earlier that it was called 'Magia Erebea', though she had no idea what that meant. Though she certainly wasn't going to allow him use that any further. He was holding a one on one battle with the leader of the Illithids, both having a vicious close range magical battle, the latter having shameful help from the flying thrall, who was using magic as well.

_This has gone on for too long._ She thought to herself, as she managed to jump above the bookworm, landing right behind her. As she expected, Nodoka turned around, brandishing her crystal arm first. Rad'na was quicker this time, swinging her mace against the arm. _"Smite."_ She spoke in a different language than Draconic, and her mace glowed powerfully just before it connected with Honya-chan's elbow.

It smashed the crystal arm to pieces, and the shockwave knocked the bookworm unconscious at the moment.

"What!" The Illithid Leader called out, looking over to see the purple-haired girl knocked out by her opponent. "No!"

"Yes." Ashracai countered, taking hold of the throat underneath the octopus head, and slamming him down on the floor, right next to the pool. "It's over for you, fiend." He brandished his claws first, extending them longer than they originally were. "Time to die."

Only, the claws couldn't penetrate the Illithid's skin. Ashracai tried a few more times, before the Mind Flayer laughed in his face whilst the battle raged on all around them. "I created this body out of an indestructible sword, fool." He mocked, and the Archmage was reminded of Nodoka's sword. "I cannot be killed in any way you can think of."

Ashracai growled loudly and rose up, raising the Comptina Daemonia to the Illithid's face. "What is your name then, Illithid?" He asked loudly and the ring set to work immediately. The English words in front of him revealed the Illithid's name. "Very well. Kas-Far of the Mind Flayers, I do happen to know something to ensure you will never be a threat to us again." He raised his hand, ignoring the pathetic small missiles the thrall flying above the pool was casting. His hand gathered some sort of void like energy. "Cold is the void." He spoke in Draconic, preparing to suck in the Mind Flayer.

Only, he got smashed away by a more powerful spell now, slamming down against Rad'na sending the two away from Nodoka, who was lying on the floor. Kas-Far lay in silence first as the fight continued around them, before starting to chuckle and get up himself. "Well, I must say that my little sorcerous slave had more juice than I anticipated." He turned to the flying thrall. "Now, eliminate that sorcerer and that cleric too. Then we can bring this battle to a close." But nothing happened. The thrall did nothing against the two Githyanki. "I said-"

"I don't work for you, monster." The thrall responded hostile to the Illithid, before slamming down a great bolt of lightning down on him. At the sound and light, the whole battle froze, with most of the Illithids dead, whilst only one Githzerai had fallen. The thrall looked around first, before a great shockwave sent nearly everybody flying against the wall, save the Emperor, Saber and Asuna. Nodoka had been unaffected as well.

"What the-" The Emperor started, raising his Carnifex. "Who in Baator are you?"

"Do you not know the doom of your people when you see it, Yanki?" The thrall responded with an open hostile tone before sending a lightning bolt down. The Master of the Imperium deflected it with ease, but was paid no further heed. "I am Valindur the great Conjurer, and I am back from the dead along with my friends."

"Valindur?" Ashracai regained his composure, and addressed the possessed thrall. "Valindur who teleported the human armies right into Githyanki settlements during the Great Uprising?"

"The same." Valindur answered him. "And you still take over bodies as always, Master Ashracai. Well, after we're done, you won't be able to resurrect again, ever."

"We?" The Archmage repeated, standing up, his Magia Erebea fading away. "What do you mean, 'We'?"

"My fellows and companions from the war are returning, old man. Aldred, Sareth, Shinyu, even your old apprentice Kaldren. All of us great magic users who fought in the war, all of those who escaped the flames of Baator. We've been hiding, waiting, biding our time in utter darkness. Now, we are coming back to finish what we started." Valindur explained, like the utter moron he was being right now. He lifted Nodoka's body up telekinetically first and energy surged through him. "And this is how we're going to do it."

"Uh oh..." Ashracai muttered, as he recognized what was going to happen.

"We'll use this girl as our primary vessel, in order to exterminate you all in one swift strike." Valindur said before the Emperor pulled the trigger multiple times, hitting only the shield that the newly arrived specter had erected. "Pathetic." A more concentrated shockwave sent the Emperor backwards. Saber jumped up against the two floating humans, but Valindur just moved them to some place else, making the Servant fall down. "So much for the fury you've been denied for so long. Where's the passion in this warband of yours?"

"Hey, I'm not done with you." A human voice called to him and he saw a redhead girl brandishing a massive two-handed sword, whilst she was in black plated armor. "You'll have to go through me first."

"A human?" Valindur said quite surprised. "What would a human do with these savages?" He questioned her, and got no answer. "Very well, listen. The Githyanki did us wrong in the past and killed most of us, including several children during a great war years ago. I'm simply enacting a plan set by our leader Drinde, to ensure that these savages will never threaten our race again. Are you willing to let me do that?"

Asuna didn't answer immediately, but took a look at the Archmage first. His eyes told a different story to her, but either side could be the truth. But she decided on one thing. "...Not when it comes to sacrificing my friend you have there." She responded while the Protoss warrior rose up, readying his energy blades.

"How unfortunate." Valindur said before sending a great fireball against her and the armored alien. The fireball dispersed and never exploded, it just disappeared. "What?" The redhead fighter smirked to herself, giving no answer as to how she stopped the ball of fire. "Fine, then. Seems I'll summon my legions of Archons against you!" A wave of orange light emitted from him to engulf the room, and several armored flaming figures appeared around him and the bookworm. "Slay that girl. She is of no greater value to our superior race."

"You with me on this?" Asuna asked the Protoss, who merely brandished his blades, and Saber rose up next to them. She nodded to the redhead, letting her take the reins for once. "Let's go!"

The trio of fighters charged right against the Archons, the leader of them jumping upwards, readying her greatsword to swing down and banish the fiery creatures. Valindur was most of all surprised to see that Asuna had taken out most of his summoned minions. "Grahh! I should-" He readied another lightning bolt, but got struck by a ray of frost from Kas-Far, who had survived the attack on him and now turned on the vicious sorcerer. "Everywhere I'm surrounded by-"

"-Warriors able to kill you with ease?" Saber asked as she had stabbed him from behind. Once the Emperor and the other two fighters had engaged the Archons, she had teleported right behind him and stabbed him with her Silver Blade. "We are the dominant race here on Tu'narath, Valindur. We have maintained this reign in over two and a half thousand years and if you think we'll give up because of one dead magic user says so..." She pulled out her blade and spun around to look the mage in the eyes whilst raising her blade high. **"Think again."** Then she struck.

No scream, no attempts to prevent the blade was done. In one swift move, Saber had decapitated the first of the coming magi to come back from the Chaotic plane of Limbo. The Archons on the other hands, shrieked in pain as their master had been killed, and then they dispersed in their flames going up in smoke. The armored Gith Knight turned her attention to an unconscious Nodoka, noticing the shattered crystal arm. Then she remembered that an Illithid was right next to her. She stabbed his tobe to prevent his escape. "You're not going anywhere."

"Think again." Kas-Far spat at her before ripping off the stabbed piece and diving into the pool of the Elder Brain, swimming to the other side to get to safety. When he resurfaced, he got shot in the back by the Emperor who had come up the stairs along with the redhead fighter and the protoss warrior.

"We'll let you live... this time, Mind Flayer." The Emperor told him sternly. "You just happen to be lucky we have more pressing matters this time."

"Grrr... I'll remember this, slave." He replied to the armored Master of the Imperium. "You'll regret crossing me." That earned him a shot in the head. He couldn't die, so it was highly painful.

"Perhaps that will help you remember who the master of this planet truly is." The Emperor countered, as the Illithid crawled off into the darkness. He then turned towards Saber, who along with Asuna and the protoss, was tending to the unconscious purple-haired girl. "How is she?"

"She'll live, at least." Saber responded. "She's seen a lot recently and just needs some rest to recover."

"Um..." Asuna was more concerned about the shattered arm on the girl. "This can be fixed, right?"

"Don't worry." Saber assured her with a gentle smile. "We did bring a healer along."

Cracks under them were heard and everybody froze what they were doing, standing very much still. The cracks silenced after a moment and the Emperor cracked first (no pun intended), in laughter of course. "No, that wasn't gonna happen for real."

"When you look at it, wouldn't it be too convenient?" Asuna joined in. Then the cracks showed themselves. Big time. "Not good!" the floor opened up rapidly as the whole chamber was collapsing all around them. The Elder Brain made a mental shriek as it went down the great hole beneath them. Nodoka slid down towards the hole too, but Saber grabbed her remaining arm to prevent that. Then she lost her footing and she began falling down. Her free hand caught the Protoss', who started pulling both women up, unfortunately the mechanical legs his armor gave him wasn't really suited for angled ground like this. So he was on the verge of falling down too, if Asuna had not caught him in turn. "It's my turn, next, I just know it!" She screamed, seeing where this was going. She was right. Good thing for her, the Emperor caught her free hand and he took hold of the free ground that wasn't going to crack with His remaining hand. "What's next?"

The Elder Brain shrieked again as it and most of the larvae, the Illithid younglings, fell down into a boiling lake of lava underneath everybody's feet. Let's just say the hanging group was more than a little shocked. "Why couldn't it have been an underground river or something?" Asuna sobbed, holding on for dear life. She was quite positive her Ankh didn't cover 'being thrown in a boiling lake of magma'.

"You know, technically speaking-" The Emperor started.

"**Not. Helping.**" The redhead immediately countered Him.

"Uh oh." Saber said, feeling her grip on the bookworm letting go. "I need to toss her up. Catch her." She told the Protoss whilst trying to lift the little girl up.

"If I let go, you'll fall into the lava." He told her.

"You have other limbs I can take hold of. She's the more important one." She countered and tossed Nodoka up. The Protoss let go of Saber and took the bookworm's arm. An instant later, the Gith Knight took hold of his leg. "Same as before, Asuna." Saber called to the redhead, who first looked at the Emperor. He nodded to her and she prepared to let go. The Protoss tossed the bookworm up, and she let go to take hold of her. The warrior took her leg an instant later.

"You ready?" Asuna asked the Emperor, who looked at the predicament.

"If I let go of you with this hand, you'll all fall into the lava." He argued to her.

"If you use the other hand to take her, we'll all fall down." She countered. He didn't like what was going to happen. The whole chamber was collapsing and the others would have undoubtedly got out whilst the rocks were fall around them.

"_Don't worry."_ A much familiar voice called to them from the lava, somehow trying to reassure them. It left it at that for them to decipher.

"Just do it!" Saber called to Asuna, who tossed Nodoka up to the Emperor, and he let go of her to take hold of the bookworm's hand and pull her up onto safe ground. Meanwhile the other three clamped together to brace themselves for what was to come beneath them. "This better not be a trick!" The Gith of them yelled at whoever had spoken to them earlier.

"_It's not, Saber. Trust me."_ The voice called again and a bright light engulfed them at the bottom.

Next thing the Emperor knew at least, they weren't there anymore. The magma had coldened and gone black now, chilled down entirely. He removed His cowl just to be certain that it was no trick. He looked around, and saw the entrance to the chamber had collapsed, while His companions had managed to leave, despite all the chaos. No Illithids were in the room as well. Save that one little larvae heading for Nodoka's head. He stomped on it and then picked up the little girl, telekinetically putting His cowl back on. _That was definitely Rufus we heard just then... but he doesn't know about what happened here... I wonder... _He turned back to the hole for a moment, before walking up to the collapsed entrance tunnel. "Knock." He said in Draconic and the rubble subsided back, allowing Him to walk out of there with the little girl in arms. "Thank you all for waiting."

"Nodoka!" The Archmage of the waiting group reacted first to the girl's situation, taking her gently from the Emperor's armored hands.

"She'll live." He told His old friend. "She just needs some healing to fix her arm."

"What of the others?" Rad'na asked Him, walking up. "What happened to the others with you, your Highness?"

"I-" The Emperor actually hesitated in answered. "...I don't know. Something happened, but I don't know what. All I know is, they are safe."

"...What happens now?" Ashracai asked.

"We'll have to send in Legionnaires down here to cleanse the mountain. I want everyone of those Tyranids eradicated before we can deem it safe to approach this place. In the meantime, warn every local settlement nearby and any traveler to stay away. We'll use the 6th Legion to clean up here." The Emperor told them all. Seeing as Lancer was panting heavily, due to the missing of her Master, He took His sword out and decapitated her on the spot, taking the card with Him. "Let's go. We need to get out of this place. You people get to Boa now. Rad'na can fix Nodoka's arm there."

"What about you?" The cleric inquired.

"I need to settle things with the Cabal. They're likely to go ballistic over this and there will be lots of paperwork to handle." He replied. "I'll see what I can do to settle that."

"Understood, then." Ashracai said, not noticing that the tattoos on his left arm, showing that Saber was his Servant, had disappeared at the moment. The Emperor stopped to eye Omaith, who was still using the Avenger assault rifle.

"Here, these should last you for the rest of your life." He said to him, handing over a case filled with metal blocks. "Since you did well, I'll let you keep the rifle."

"Er... thank you, Sir." Omaith answered him, taking the heavy case. "I won't abuse it."

"Damn straight." The Emperor replied. "Now let's get the Hell out of here."

**

* * *

**

A/N: Finally done! Albeit, not as I had hoped, but I think this was done quite well, nevertheless. Don't worry about Asuna, she is not dead. Just... not there. Chill for now and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I need to work on something that'll keep me on the animesuki forums' Negima Fanfiction thread. For those of you who read this and want help/display your work for beta progressing, you're free to do so there. Just register or log in and go there and you're good to go. Don't be afraid: we don't bite you (too hard) and we're always willing to help you become a good writer/improve your work.

**For now, if you feel like you need to be in Chester A. Bum mode to review this chapter, feel free to do so, or be yourselves. Ciao for now!**

1: Those who are familiar with the Mass Effect universe should know this weapon and technology. Those who don't, allow me: The technology is basically "force equals mass times velocity" and follows that sentence to the fullest. Fire one round, just 1 round and given enough time and velocity, it will have the same impact force of a Hiroshima nuke, maybe even more. That said and I quote: "Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space." It's shown more deadly in that the bullets are the size of _grains of sand_. The rounds are sheared off in pieces from a block of metal inside the gun. Technically, it's not limitless ammo, but it will take days before you need to get a new block. What bugs me, though is **how the hell** do you get a new block in there after the weapon is constructed? I mean, it's gotta run out someday and when it does, you'd be sorry. So I went around that problem: the main body is split along the barrel, which uses superconducting magnets (Hell yeah, semi- **AND** Full-automatic rail guns!), and the block of metal is right behind it. Theoretically, that's the official design but it's never shown, so I made it up. By the way, if someone on the Bioware team is out there reading this, please understand in that I'm only trying to make things easier. In theory, guns in _ME_ should have a cooldown AND thermal clips available at the same time, not just one way of reloading.

2 :The proverb about humans goes like this: "Give a human a firearm, and it will likely take him less than a minute how to fire, reload... and kill you with it."


	41. Village of Boa

**A/N:**_Alright, let's get serious. This is where it should all fit into place as to why I've been so horrible to poor little Honya-chan. One point of my work here is of course, to catch the little details, things that most people wouldn't normally catch. Try to find some for yourself, and arm yourself with knowledge of D&D as we dive deeper into this world._

* * *

Around the same time as the raid went on, aboard the GPS, things had gone into a routine. Take gadgets apart, put them back together had become second nature for the engineers for starters, namely Andreas and Collet. The dog-girl had asked about helping the former with the amount of gadgets and equipment they had aboard and he had said yes. At least she had something to do whilst everybody else tried to memorize the rules of D&D, so they could have a go when Asuna came back. 'Course, Andreas had been listed the GM since he was the only one with experience.

Yue and Fate took their respective turns at teaching Chizuru Latin and Ancient Greek, taking talkative lessons so that the big-busted girl would have easier times understanding the scrolls filled with other things that would be useful for her. The young girl was certainly impressive to say the least, as she was seen once with Du Chat and Von Katz, talking fluently in basic Latin for study purposes.

_Meanwhile, I'm stuck on piloting the damn ship._ Haruna thought to herself, being stuck on Mission Control and pilot duties. Probably the most boring duties aboard the ship. Oh, she would love to give that Dreadnought thingy a go, but their engineer had to make sure they knew which part went where, since Karl, by Stonegarden's own words translated from Swedish, 'didn't pack a bloody instruction manual'. Which in turn meant that Andreas had to take apart the thing first and then by memory put it all back together again, just so they would know what to do without any complication.

She did however, watch their main fighter's signal, during the raid that she was taking part in. Apparently the big cheeses on the planet had appeared for this. That was real nice. Not to mention they finally got a look at the head of the coming invasion, if there was any heading towards Earth. So far, readings had been off the scale a couple of hours since Asuna left. Something had made a killing blow, but if it wasn't for that Ankh she had, she'd be dead. Good thing those were packed along. It was around that time that she thought of that, when the most peculiar thing happened on the screen.

"What the-?" Haruna exclaimed, checking the GPS' computer over and over again. "This can't be right."

"What is?" Akira asked as she walked into the ship bridge.

"I've lost Asuna's signal." The pilot told her. "Her readings were perfectly fine one moment, but now they're gone."

"What?" The swimmer went over to the computer screen to have a look for herself. "That's not good."

"Yeah. Gotta tell someone." Haruna said before pressing a button. "Uh, Fate? We have a situation. You're needed on the bridge now." She empathized the word 'now' as to make sure he hurried up.

"_We're coming." _Fate replied to her and the comm shut itself off. Didn't take long before he and Chizuru came in, the latter wearing an explorer's outfit, or something similar to it. "What's the situation?"

"We just lost Asuna's signal." Haruna reported to him. "She was perfectly healthy one moment and nothing odd had happened, the next instant..." She took the time to make a funny wheeze along with hand gestures before ending with a brief raspberry with her tongue. "Gone."

"Any idea where she was, when last you checked her signal?" Fate asked and the mangaka set to work on the computer.

"In the center of this mountain, here." Haruna opened up a map of the big mountain. "I don't know what it's called or where it is, but even if we did find it, we'd be staring down the barrels of the planet's Big Cheese."

"...I'm not familiar with the term, Saotome." Fate told her.

"The Emperor of the Githyanki." Haruna clarified. "He showed up for this gathering that was going on. If he turned up, God knows what sort of danger they could have run into down there."

Fate turned away from the screen to think this over. Eventually, he came to a conclusion. "...We'll send two search-and-rescue parties." He said before turning to face Chizuru and Akira. "You two will be one of those teams. I'll send Konoe and Sakurazaki as the second. I want you to find Kagurazaka fast. As much as you don't like to hear this from a commander, I don't want you on-board again until I give further notice or you find her. Am I clear?"

"Yes...Sir." Chizuru answered him for the two. "We'll leave as soon as possible."

"Good." Fate said. "Go see Stonegarden about any equipment you might need and I'll have you sent down afterward. Konoe and Sakurazaki will be informed later on. In the meantime, Saotome, you contact Dynamis and request of him what the raid on the mountain was all about."

"Alright, alright." Haruna replied, trying to get a communication channel open to their more... other-sided companion, before something on their scopes showed up. "Uh oh. Native spaceships incoming!"

"Evasive maneuvers now." Fate told her immediately, and that was all she needed.

"Hang on, everybody. It's gonna be a bumpy ride!" She screamed over the whole ship and then they were off away from where the ships were coming from.

_Aboard the Githyanki frigates..._

"Sir, we have a bogey two clicks south-south-east from our current position. They're in striding speed away from us. Should we intervene?" A technician on the bridge asked the captain.

"Leave them." The captain replied. "If they're just leaving the area, we got no reason to intervene. But we should mention this to someone important."

"Speaking of someone important, Commander Fashtar is sending a transmission to us."

The captain sighed. "Patch him through." A screen showing the eye-patched Gith appeared before the captain of the frigate. "Commander, we've reached the planet's surface and heading towards the location."

"_Good."_ Fashtar replied coldly. _"The Emperor wants Mt. Ilsensine purged of anything hostile. Expect heavy resistance."_

"Understood, Sir. Also, there's another thing. Just before you contacted us, we picked up an unidentified bogey heading away from us."

"_I'll look into it._" Fashtar told them. _"In the meantime, you go to Mt. Ilsensine. The longer we delay, the bigger risk there is of the Tyranids getting loose upon our homeworld. Understand?"_

"Yes, Sir."

_**Much later, somewhere else**_

Fading sunlight woke Nodoka up as she stirred back to normal. Looking at the color of it, it was sunset on Tu'narath. This could mean only one thing: She was away from the Illithids.

The absence of her right arm hit her hard though as she tried to rise up. The little limp that remained of it stung as she got out of the bed. _Gods, I can't believe I was so careless!_ She scolded herself, finding herself in a simple, ragged tunic for men, way too big for her. She could smell it on her that she hadn't had the luxury of a bath either.

On the upside, though, sunlight greeted her eyes, fresh air greeted her lungs, and as her head began to clear away of any 'mind fog' as the slang was on the planet, the sound of conversation greeted her ears. What's more, one of those voices belonged to Ashracai.

"Mt. Ilsensine is being cleared as we speak." Fashtar reported to the Archmage, holding a data slate in hand, and wearing his military uniform for the Imperial Forces. "So far, the upper levels where the defense force was had been cleared out. Large number of thralls had been recovered, mostly alive, and their minds are being set for rehabilitation on another uninhabited planet where they could live in... sanctuary."

"And of the... Mind Flayers? What happened to them?" Ashracai demanded to know. Fashtar looked at his data slate.

"...The Fiends who survived, seems to have... vanished. Search parties are not willing to go any further down the hallways they suspect the enemy ran off into. And the Illithid designated as Kas-Far escaped. But even if we could find him, the bastard is practically invulnerable. No way we could hurt him." Fashtar answered at last.

"Well then, find him. As long as he's on the loose, there is no settlement that is safe." Ashracai said sternly. "...I'm sorry for making you do this, Fashtar."

"Hey, I need the routine for my boys. The Legions are out scouring the Imperial border planets and just the occasional pirate ship slipping by to raid is happening out there. Me, I can't be grateful enough that we get to deal with Illithids again."

"Don't expect too much." Ashracai told him sternly. "I for one, like the quiet life and I got too much to think about to just run for some conquest without reason, understand?"

"Yes, yes, I've heard this before. But you know-" Fashtar stopped immediately seeing the view behind the Archmage. Nodoka was staggering out of a house, with just one arm, unaccustomed to the new weight difficulties. "Er, er..." The eye-patched gith got out, as Ashracai turned to face his latest problem to attend to. "...Well, if you don't mind, I'll be going to take a look at the soldiers, okay, bye!" With that he teleported away in a blink.

"Argh! Coward!" The Archmage accused him of running away, but he couldn't himself, since his daughter had been looking for him. If he went away in a blink as well... Rad'na wouldn't be happy about it. _Thank you, Fashtar, for putting me into this pile of crap..._ He turned around to view Nodoka, looking at him with confused eyes. This was bound for disaster. "...Um... are you...? No, that was stupid to think."

"Eh?" Nodoka inquired.

"I- I was going to ask you if you were...okay, but... you're not. Not in a form of 'okay' that most people would say." He put his palm to his face. "I'm at least... happy that you are alive, but this should never have happened. All this time, and not once did we get so much of a hint of this..."

"Ah, no, this wasn't your fault..." Nodoka tried to soothe him. It seemed to have worked. "We didn't know. You couldn't have known. There... there was no reason for you to think that those..." She tried to find the name for those things. "...Cthulhus, would be here on Tu'narath."

"You're... right. There was no reason at all. In our confidence that the four races here were the dominant ones, we neglected to think that the Illithids wouldn't dare come here to begin with. Closer to danger, farther from harm, right?"

"Yes..." Nodoka said meekly. Both of them couldn't find the right words after that. It was their first reunion after leaving the capital of Samasaliasal... and neither knew what to say to each other. "I'm... I'm sorry..." She spoke first eventually, as the sun was setting. This caught him a bit off-guard. "I'm sorry for seeing that soothsayer back in G'zen. If I hadn't seen her... then none of this would have happened in the first place."

"...I should have disobeyed the Emperor and sent you, Hinagiku and Boris back home immediately." Ashracai said, clenching his fist. "That way, you wouldn't be in this mess."

"Hina? Boris-san? What happened to the others?" Nodoka stopped worrying about her own condition for once.

"...We've lost contact with them all. Symon and Jashol were with us when we came to get you away from the Illithids, but we don't know where the others are. So far, we only know that they are alive." Ashracai told her truthfully. "In that they're all alive is a good thing, but that's all we can get for now."

Nodoka took in the information. She didn't have any way of knowing for herself, but her father did have good intelligence about these sorts of things. _Thank goodness... Hina's okay, Boris-san's okay... everyone is fine after that battle..._Then she remembered something. "...I could really use a bath..."

"Now, there, I come into the picture." A female voice said behind the bookworm, drawing her attention to a tall, black haired Githyanki woman clad in simple robes made of silk and colored azure blue with a white velvet stole. She wore also a small eight-pointed star in a chain around her neck, made of white gold and colored prismatic. "Good to make your acquaintance outside of combat, Nodoka. My name is Rad'na, and I'm this village's healer and cleric. I look forward to any further conversations we might have."

"Uh... yes..." Nodoka was quite taken aback by this lady's behavior. Most Githyanki were rough, on the verge of xenophobia towards her, and not very pleasant. This one on the other hand, much like Efromm but even more, had a more serene, calm and gentle expression. It could be due to that she was the cleric of the village, but there was something else to her, but it was definitely hidden well.

"Well, then. Come with me and I'll take you to the bath house. I'm afraid it will have to be cold water, lest the injury on your arm will reopen due to the heat." Rad'na gestured for them to get going. Nodoka took a look at Ashracai, who simply gestured with his hand that she could go off. And then the two girls were off, leaving the older Githyanki sorcerer to his own tricks and reliefs, at least until the meeting later on.

* * *

It was in the bath house, that Nodoka could finally let the tears out.

"I really must be such a child..." She told herself, whilst the older woman washed her back. Nodoka had been put in a bronze tub filled with cold water, whilst the priestess sat by the side, using a sponge along with clean rugs to clean up the little human. "All that willpower not to cry... used up in front of my dad..."

"Hm? It's not so bad. You held out long enough for me to intervene, at least." Rad'na tried to soothe her.

"Yes... but... right now, I would like nothing more than to go home right now..." The bookworm confessed. "I know Father is able to do so in a flash... all I have to do is ask him and then I'll be back home... back with my friends, Yue... Haruna... Negi-sensei... but, I can't." Rad'na turned Nodoka around to scrub her back whilst she listened. "I can't because that would mean that I'm a coward... I am. I'm a clutzy, shy, untalented coward... and all I can do just read a book whilst everyone else seem to be having fun in comparison."

Rad'na stopped for a moment whilst the girl ranted on. "I'm no talented mage like Yue and Negi-sensei. I'm no fighter like Kotarou-kun or Asuna-san... I just know some spells and they were nothing against those things... and right now, I'm just a big crybaby." Then came a harsh scrub that hurt her. It felt intentional. She turned her head around to face a serious-looking Rad'na.

"What the **hell** are you talking about?" She said, scaring the bookworm. "Clutzy? Maybe. Shy? Oh, yes you are, I knew that before I met you. Untalented? What does that have to do with anything? Coward? Oh, no. You are not some coward who got thrust into a situation few could handle great. You are one of the greatest human children I've come to know over my years and here you are, scolding yourself over nothing. Granted, you were severely injured, but that doesn't change a thing about who you are."

"But-"

"Spare me." Rad'na cut her off. "I'm not done. You could have broken back when you first woke up here on Tu'narath, shutting yourself away from the others. You didn't. You planned the escape from there, you stood up against that Cireka woman and you helped your team win majorly in that test fight. What's more, you pulled yourself together after all that and did more. From what I hear, you also refused to back down against Cireka's advancements toward you and Hina. During all this time, you could have crumbled and begged for being taken back home, leaving this whole quest thing behind you, but you didn't. Why? Because you are somehow, trying to prove that you are not all those things you just said. That's... that's something to admire, really. Hell, I would admire you for that."

"You... you really mean that?" Nodoka asked nervously.

"Oh, yes." Rad'na answered her. "I would." Then the priestess let out a heavy sigh. "I guess Dad has a lot going on about with you being like this."

"Dad-? You're Ashracai-san's daughter too!" Nodoka exclaimed, rising out of the tub, only to be put down again.

"Yes. I'm your onee-san. Or, I think that's the word. I haven't been reading up on Japanese very much since we discovered your home." Rad'na began to ramble on. "Oh, where was I? Oh yeah." She continued to wash up Nodoka, with the little girl being quite obedient now. "You know... when you are in doubt, people tend to sing."

"Sing?" Nodoka asked curiously.

"Yes. We Githyanki are a martial culture, really, so we lack behind others in a few terms of technology. Music is one of them. We do have instruments, but not many, so we sing songs to entertain. It also helps training officers to shout orders in battle when they're not telepaths, but you get idea. Some, like me, sing because it's meditational. It eases the mind, clears the head from unclean thoughts and allows you to think more on the task at hand for you." Rad'na spoke greatly of this feat for the Gith.

"Huh... that would explain Rev'keth-san when he thinks he's alone during those travels..." Nodoka told herself. "Well... I would sing, if I knew any songs for this situation... And I don't think I'm such a good singer..." She said meekly.

"Well, okay. I'll sing, then." Rad'na said instead, as she was finished using the sponge and picked a rug. "Hmmm, what to sing about... Ah! I know." She said first and then cleared her throat to start off.

_When I close my eyes_

_The loving mystery overflowing surround_

_But through it all I see_

_And wish upon this star inside I found_

She then proceeded to lift the girl out of the tub to dry her up with the rugs, with Nodoka being all obedient in her actions, letting the cleric do her work. She walked around as she sang, rubbing gently in a motion as to make Nodoka believe her.

_So come, along, with me_

_We'll leap across the clouds, of sighs and go_

_Day after day, we'll look for a way_

_It's there in your mind, I know_

Unnoticed by the bookworm, she touched the little limp of what remained of Nodoka's right arm, as her star symbol glowed briefly and then something happened to that arm, whilst Rad'na continued, drying off Nodoka's hair with a new rug.

_And wherever you'll go_

_I will be there by your side_

_Count on me, I will be_

_The shoulder when you need to cry_

She finished with the hair and then got out some new clothing for the bookworm, a little commoner's chiton for girls colored white, and made of soft silk too.

_If you hold your head high_

_And do the best you can_

_I'll be there, watching you_

_At your side, I'll always stand_

"...Feel better now?" Rad'na asked her, the girl fully dressed now properly. "It wasn't my best performance, really, but it was the best I could come up with..."

"Ah, no..." Nodoka cut her off there. "I... liked it. It was... very enjoyable." She let out a small smile.

"That's good to hear." The cleric said before sniffing the air. "Ah, Ie's done dinner now. Come, we should eat and then it's off to sleep for you. You can have my bed, too."

"Really?" Nodoka asked. Rad'na took her by the right hand and held it up, putting back the Comptina Daemonia on her finger again.

"Really, really."

Hold on. **Stop**. Her right hand? Nodoka puzzled in just a brief second, seeing the new hand. The eyes went down the arm, right to where her little limp used to be. It was no longer a limp. The entire arm had been grown back to its normal form, right to the way it was before Drinde had somehow obliterated it. Unknowingly, Nodoka wept tears of joy over the recovery of her arm and she gasped in happiness as well. One look at her sister and all Rad'na said was "There's nothing my magical healing cannot take care of." Nodoka couldn't find the words, but the look on her face told Rad'na everything she needed to know she was in massive gratitude. "Now, come here and give onee-san a hug, eh?"

_**She got pounced**_

"How is she?" Ashracai asked, when the priestess stepped out of the bedroom.

"If that girl isn't watched over by some angel I don't know about, she must be suffering from some sleeping sickness or something." Rad'na smarted back. "I'm just kidding. She's sleeping like a little human baby."

"Whew, that's good to hear." The Archmage said, pulling his arm over his forehead. "Thought you'd pull one of those bedtime stories you always have for Iliss and her pack of cretins."

"Nah, just sang a little earlier." Rad'na said, helping her slave with clearing the table.

"Ohhh, It's been years since I ate something this good." Efromm commented the food, patting her belly. After fourteen hours of being in heavy armor, it was fairly understandable. "My congratulations to the chef."

"Your gratitude is most pleasing." Ie spoke softly, bowing to the blonde High Queen. Efromm nodded back with a smile.

"...Somehow, I feel like I'm out of place here, then." Fashtar said, being out of uniform and in casual clothes for once. Although a rather common sight when he wasn't working, Fashtar did look impressive in his casual clothes. This time, he had gone with Earth clothing, a neat blue shirt along with custom fitted pants, plus shoes that fitted his feet. Mind you, Githyanki did have big feet.

"Nonsense, at least you got to feel the taste of the food, even more, eat it." Rufus said, being in his robe and that oxidated crown of his on his head. "If anyone is out of place, it is me."

"Now then... since we're all here," Ashracai said whilst Rad'na told Ie to go to her room and taking a seat at the same time. He also gestured to sound isolate the two rooms where the girls slept so that they wouldn't hear the conversation which was sure to involve shouting. "Let's get down to iron tacks."

"Are those the tacks when we start throwing accusations at each other for this scenario?" Fashtar inquired. "Or is it just us getting serious?"

"Both, I would take it." Ashracai replied. "But I wonder if the one at fault for all of this has any right to throw accusations at any of us here..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Fashtar stopped him there. "You're saying this is all my fault?"

"It is. You brought her here to Tu'narath to begin with, didn't you?"

"And in doing so, started a chain of events that we can all agree upon." Fashtar countered. "I don't deny the fact that I abducted her away from Earth, but I didn't just bring her alone here."

"Yes... Hinagiku and Boris." Efromm added. "But as far as we know, they're just alive. They could be in danger, don't you think?"

"I picked them for their high levels of survivals. Boris is a trained soldier and a damned good one too. Hinagiku has been through very tough scrapes as a child herself, and pulled through it without outside help." Fashtar told them. "Both know how to look after themselves in unfamiliar environments."

"In any case, there are several other factors we need to consider, not just Nodoka's predicament." Rad'na interrupted them there. "We have Drinde to consider."

"Yes, and his dead consorts, returning from the dead." Ashracai said. "What do we know of this... situation?"

"I can answer some of that." Rufus spoke up again. "Drinde was... an old friend of mine, from the Great War. A Necromancer, of sorts. He loved playing with the dead, and he led his own armies against you Githyanki on his own, always bolstering his forces. As I recall, it was a great explosion caused from outer space that brought him down in the end."

"Yes, we used a tactical nuke." Ashracai responded. "And among that, he seems to be not the only one who's come back from the dead."

"Eh? What do you mean?" Efromm asked.

"When we were in the Elder Brain chamber, Valindur the Conjurer showed up, taking possession of a slave's body. This slave of course, was born with magic, like us. I think this can be a good thing for us, lest we all be overwhelmed."

"You mean they can only take control of human sorcerers?" Fashtar inquired. "Great. That would mean we'd just have to use the records of bloodlines and offshoots to track down **every single one** that could be a potential target. Given the damn size of Tu'narath, any idea how many that might be?"

"It's a start, at least." The Archmage told him. "It'll allow us to maintain the situation a little better."

"True. It would take a while though to rein them all in."

"What about Averruncus?" Efromm asked, bringing that topic up on the table. "He's here too. And he's still out there, as well. What are we going to do about him?"

"Until we can get a permanent fix on his position, nothing." Fashtar said. "I did get a report about an unidentified bogey by the 6th Legion earlier today, so I'll look into that."

"Hmm... our little protege has it really hard ahead of herself." Rufus said, scratching his chin. "What are we going to do about it?"

"...I see one option." Ashracai spoke up. "It is most likely not the biggest favorite, but it's an option, nonetheless."

"What?" Fashtar asked, but seeing the seriousness in the Archmage's eyes, he quickly realized what he was talking about. "Are you **high?**"

_And there it comes... _"No, I'm not high.I know what I'm talking about, this time." Ashracai replied coldly, rising up, the eye-patched one doing the same. "And I'm willing to oversee it myself."

"Are you perhaps so blurred in your head that you've forgotten number 4 of the Surface Laws: That **no member** of the Githyanki, the Hobgoblins and the Rakshasa species, is under pain of death to never teach a human magic?" Fashtar pointed out. "You were there when it was issued."

"And so were you, 2000 years ago." Ashracai countered him. "But you do recall that there are several loopholes into it, as well. Nodoka may be human, but she's also an official Imperial, in that I adopted her into the Samasal clan. What's more, she's my personal daughter. As Clan Leader, I hold the right to teach anyone I want."

"You resigned your position millenia ago!" Fashtar slammed his fist down on the table. "The title of Clan Leader now lies with your son!"

"Perhaps, but last I checked, you'd have to be dead in order to no longer be a Clan Leader. Newsflash: I'm not!"

"Only because you're cheating, using other bodies!" Fashtar yelled at him.

"Oh, like you haven't cheated death either, Fash!"

"At least I know when I'm gonna die, you son of a-"

"**ENOUGH!**" Rad'na screamed at the two, slamming her fist on the table, cracks easily appearing. "You might yell all you want, but this is **my **home, and I will **not **tolerate fights here." She scolded them. Fashtar and Ashracai sat back down again on their respective seats. "If we were to follow the age, then I too am a Clan Leader of Samasal. So I give my consent on this matter."

"So do I." Efromm said. "I may not know magic, but the law doesn't forbid Githyanki teaching humans combat, at least. If it makes Nodoka better at surviving a battle, then I will aid in doing so."

"I as well." Rufus added. "I am no member of those three species, so by technicality I am able to teach humans. The only reason I haven't is because I've seen first hand what people can do with such power and then abuse it."

Realizing that he had been outnumbered in this endeavor, Fashtar rose from his seat. "...Have it your way, then." With that, he teleported away from there, leaving no trace of where he would be.

"Seems he's still not over what happened." Rufus said.

"I don't think you know half the story." Ashracai commented.

* * *

In the middle of the night, in a place not far from Boa, filled with rocks, someone was smashing them to pebbles with his bare hands.

Unable to win the argument and since punching would just prove him at major fault, Fashtar took out his anger on lifeless rocks instead. And he had very good reason. _They don't know what I endured! _He thought as he smashed a great boulder into pebbles, smashing against it over and over. _I had to hold my son's corpse in my arms, back then! They didn't lose anyone, I did!_

He stumbled and fell face first down against the highly rough surface he has made from more than an hour's smashing. "Ow..." He mumbled before hearing someone laughing in the dark, getting up on his knees quickly.

"This is the dreaded war leader of the Githyanki?" A very much familiar voice said, revealing a corporal body of Kurt Gödel, with a few key exceptions. His skin was tanned, his hair was dark while his eyes were burning bright red, and small horns extended themselves from his forehead. He was dressed very much like the human governor-general on Mars, save his suit was black and the shirt underneath was crimson red, with a black tie. The longcoat he wore was pretty much the original color. "Now, reduced to such childish and violent behavior over a little... disagreement? Are we upset or fully outraged, Fashtar of the Githmir clan?"

"Asmodeus." Fashtar said, rising up to face this new appearance. "What have I done to gain the honor of meeting the Lord of the Nine Hells in person?" He asked as he felt himself surrounded by other devils clad in heavy plate armor, wielding swords and shields.

"Why, a little bit of everything, naturally." Asmodeus answered him, stepping forward to the eye-patched one. "You know me, Fash. I always keep an eye on mortals and such. And I too feel a bit unnerved by the arrival of this... Drinde fellow and his associates."

"I thought you didn't care for my kind."

"I don't. What I do care about are the others, the humans and the Hobgoblins." The arch-devil answered. "I know for a fact of what would happen if that little girl you brought to this planet is taken by Drinde, and it is not a pretty sight. As much as I'm the ruler of the Nine Hells as you've put it, even I... have limits. I want to rule, not watch in agony and suffer the screams of billions who did nothing wrong, save kill someone in self-defense for example."

"And you came to me because of what?" Fashtar demanded to know, ignoring about the other devils surrounding him, as the two moons lit up the night. "You know fully well of what happened during the Great War. Why bother to come to me when you know that I'm against the idea of having a human learn magic?"

Asmodeus chuckled fully before answering that. "Ever so conclusive and correct. I too stand for teaching that girl magic. And allow me to counter you with this: If, uh..."

"Nodoka." Fashtar informed him.

"...Nodoka, were the same as the other magic users from the Great War... then why does she have that grimoire of hers?"

"Well, it's because that she wouldn't abuse the damn book and-" Fashtar stopped there and suddenly realized how utterly moronic he had been back in Boa. "...I see what you're getting at."

"Of course." Asmodeus said. "That girl knows that power is bad to abuse, so why think that she would the same as they? Besides, think of how this could be to your advantage, Fashtar."

"There's just one thing." Fashtar interrupted the arch-devil there. "What do you want in return for this?"

"Return? What I want in return, that is a very good question, Fashtar..." Asmodeus said, taking a few steps around the pebble filled landscape, repeating the words. "...You are quite clever. You know fully about the dangers of making a contract with someone like me. After all, it was I after all who gave you that eye-patch all those years ago, wasn't it?"

"Only because I told you of what would happen if you didn't give me this damned thing." Fashtar spat at him, rubbing his silver scaled eye-patch, as he felt something stir up beneath it again. "But is it a favor of mine, or Nodoka's, that you're asking for, this time?"

"I can wait for a favor, eventually." Asmodeus replied, waving off his soldiers into the darkness. "I have my ways of contact, Fashtar. You paid off your debts centuries ago. So I'll go for the girl this time. Don't worry... it will not be anything like what I have asked of others in the past... or what I asked of you, old friend." With that, the Lord of the Nine Hells disappeared into the darkness, leaving the Githyanki alone amidst the rubble.

"Nice to see you, too, Asshole." Fashtar told nobody specific.

_**Somewhere else, far from safety**_

The first thing that they could hear after what seemed like an eternity was a damn mighty rumble, and a blinding flash. Then... shadows and the dripping of water. They hurt all over, and the moaning from the youngest of them could tell.

Asuna felt as if she had first been through about 37 rounds of hand-to-hand combat with Eva-chan, then had a big boulder thrown at her by Ku Fei, followed shortly by that weird lorry she's been seeing for some time back home on her rounds. As in, the driver had run over her a couple of times. Even with her body magically enhanced, that hurt. "Ooooh... we're gonna be sore all morning..." She said, not joking at all.

"Any of you hurt?" The familiar voice of Saber called out, and the occasional thud. It sounded like she was trying to stay upright, but her balance was off the table and into God's pint of beer.

* * *

"_I thought that it was wine that God drank."_

"_Wine, Beer, whatever. It's alcohol all the same. Who gives a smeg if it's for fun?"_

"_Good point."_

* * *

"Feel like crap, but I'll live." Asuna answered first, waving her hand above her to reveal where she was. "I'm hurting more as I move. I'm gonna lay still here for some time, okay?"

"I'm in pain, but in no danger of my life being threatened." The Protoss in armor replied afterward. "I am unable to move without feeling pain, however."

"I feel the same." Saber informed them as well. "But we need to see where we are."

Minutes passed. It felt like hours. None of them could get up without hurting somewhere important for them to maintain balance. They did however make progress. After about an hour or so (felt like ten), they got up on their feet, wobbling still in their attempts to regain balance. But at least they could recognize where they were now. They were in the Elder Brain chamber. "...Weren't we here like... before we landed in the glowy lava?" Asuna asked out of curiosity

"We were." Saber replied, picking up a green crystal dagger from the floor. "But this amount of destruction..." They looked around, seeing bleaching bones and snapped limbs, along with drying corpses of Illithids and larvae tossed out of the spawning pool. "This isn't what we caused when we attacked. Something else happened here..."

"May I suggest we travel to the surface and assess the situation, there?" the Protoss asked first, heading towards the entrance door, which had been smashed open with brute force, instead of blown apart. "I fear there is a situation far different than what we caused."

"I concur." Saber said and the trio headed up the tunnel they recalled they went through the first time, seeing more and more death as they went. The site of battle was very obvious and whatever attacked, won brutally and mercilessly.

When they exited the labyrinth of tunnels and emerged out of the main door, they were in for a surprise. A major one. Scorched earth, a black sky covered with cloud so thick, you couldn't see the sky above it. It was all a barren wasteland, filled with ash and dust in the air, almost making you choke. It was mostly silent, each noise made revealed the position of something or someone. The trio stared in shock at the massive devastation, not knowing what had happened here.

"...Where, are we?" Asuna asked.

"Somewhere I doubt we would find good shelter in, would be my estimation." The Protoss answered her first, taking a few steps forward.

A crack somewhere revealed the presence of a herbivore animal, scavenging for whatever it could find on trees. Sensing that they were getting hungry, Saber acted first and ambushed the animal from behind. Slicing its throat was easy once you got hold of it.

A few hours later, as it grew darker, and they assumed that nightfall was approaching, all three of them enjoyed some well done meat roasted over an open fire. "Now we can figure out where we are, with some food in our bellies." The Protoss said, though both women did wonder how he managed to eat, if he did, without having a mouth. (I'm not going there. Period)

"That's simple." Saber told them almost immediately. "I think the more apt question is when, and why, we are here." She told them, but upon seeing their confused expressions, she elaborated. "This world, the scorched earth, bones lying about... I'd take that for a world in a place we know as the Eye of Terror (lacking all the screaming and endless warfare), but this Mithral Needle Elk we're eating gave it away... this is Tu'narath. Or at least, another version of it."

"Huuh?" The redhead exclaimed, looking at the Gith woman in armor. "This is Tu-na- the Githyanki homeworld? So how come it looks different?"

"Long story cut very short, we Githyanki gained the ability to travel between dimensions before we learned space travel and guns." Saber answered her. "There is a dimension theory of reality. Along those lines, there is the suggestion of an infinite amount of parallel universes where every possibility exists. For instance, you are the Asuna of your own dimension, whereas here, there could be another Asuna. The only difference between you two is that at some point in life, you went one way and she went another. It's the basic tenets of the theory."

"...Meaning," Asuna tried to get a conclusion about it. "For every decision in one universe that is made, the alternative to that is played in another reality?"

"Yes. That is exactly how it goes." Saber said. "What is baffling me, though, is what decision happened here, and why we are here."

"Well, we won't be able to find a way back for some time, I gather." Asuna said, taking another chunk of meat from the fire. "So we'll try and find some place to sleep, before this fire attracts anything hostile..."

_**Back in Our dimension**_

Nodoka woke up peacefully, to the sound of work outside the room. Someone was moving a few things in the house. When she was about to move, she found that Negi plushie she had been given had been put in her arms, and she still held onto it. Well, she did, but she decided to keep it with her, since it somehow helped her sleep much better. But she'd best find some other clothes than what her older sister had given her back in the bathhouse.

("It is good to see you awake, Lady Nodoka.") A voice said from the hallway, and there stood probably yet another gorgeous female, holding a wooden chest in her arms. This one was not Githyanki, but human looking, save for a few features. Like many beautiful women she's seen, she was a fair-skinned blonde with free, long hair going down to the waist, very much like Iinchou back home. Hazel eyes, along with... pointed ears did she have, resembling what most people back home would define, as an elf. She was much into the blue and green color style, and her clothing was attractive, yet modest. She did have a collar around the neck, though. Nodoka knew first hand what that meant. This was a slave. ("My name is Ielenia.") She spoke again, in a language that the bookworm did not understand. Seeing the confusion on the girl's face, the elf lady put a hand on herself to make it simpler. ("Ielenia.")

"Ah." The bookworm realized and then nodded to her. "Pleased to meet you."

The slave lady didn't say anything in return, just huffed and went forward with the chest first. Placing it in front of the bed, she opened it up to reveal Nodoka's old clothes, back home from Earth. The little purple haired girl could scarcely believe her eyes. Her own clothes, not something that had been brought to her, had now been returned to her. ("I was informed to help you dress properly for the day, Lady.") Ielenia said, still not understood by Nodoka. But it didn't take long for the bookworm to realize that she was there to help her get into the clothes.

_Let's go watch some birds while the author is trying to remember what Honya-chan's clothes looked like, shall we?_

…

…

…

…

…

_Got it!_

Bit later, Nodoka emerged in her school uniform, having the spring clothes at least. Ielenia did insist on her having a longer skirt, however, as showing so much leg was... indecent of girls and women here on the planet. Coming out of the bedroom, she found the main room packed with three sleeping forms, ergo, Ashracai, Rad'na and Efromm, the last of the three having a few alcohol bottles around herself. Rad'na had just one. Her dad seemed to lack anything like that, but all the pressure of what's been going on around him must have taken away all his hours of sleep or something.

Ielenia excused herself from the bookworm to clean up by the table and carry the two seemingly drunk women to bed. Nodoka was still holding the Negi plushie doll, so whilst the slave laid the others to rest, she took the opportunity to put the little doll in her father's arms, smiling while she does it. She decided to take a look outside the house whilst Efromm muttered some gibberish in her drunken sleep.

It was a human village, filled with people working hard, taking down a few houses to reuse the material for making new ones. All the grown men worked hard together, not having protective clothing like back home on Earth, instead being bare-chested. This did make them quite muscularly built though. A couple of them noticed the girl and waved gently at her. She waved back at them before talking a walk around the village.

Whilst doing so, she made a personal check on herself. She was lacking her equipment save the Comptina Daemonia, and that was only good for revealing names. She had no reason to ask them their names, and she had no malice against them. Still, they all seemed friendly towards her though, so she had to make the occasional wave and greeting to them. Children playing about approached her as well, seeing the Witch in real life. "What? I don't understand... what you're saying..." She tried to tell them as they spoke in their own language, all of them getting quiet when she talked, not understanding what she said in return to them.

("Hey, what is she saying?") A boy to her right asked another.

("I don't know. Is she trying to cast a spell or something?") The other boy answered.

("Really?") A girl asked, getting excited. ("I want to see.") She then turned to the elder purple haired girl, trying to get her to understand. ("Ma-gic.")

"Um... Magic?" Nodoka asked in her own Japanese, and the little girl nodded. Guess 'Yhuru' meant 'Magic' here. Guess she needed to learn the language. She did need to come up with something that seemed magic, but she needed a foci in order to use her powers. And that was gone, too. All she had was her ring that revealed names... Hold the phone. "What is your name?" She asked the girl whilst holding up the ring. At that time, the ring did its work by writing on its own the girl's name. "...Pleasure to meet you, Ailis-chan."

("Uuoooo! She could tell my name!") The little girl named Ailis told the others. ("I didn't even tell her that!")

("Let me try.") A boy stepped forward. He gestured to Nodoka, silently asking her to reveal his name. She did so again.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Artan-kun." She said with a smile to him. It didn't take long before the boy told the others and they were amazed. Shortly though, weird single noises were heard across the village. It sounded like a loud 'Ping', and came first singularly, then in short bursts. Ever curious, the bookworm decided to investigate.

("Could you at least, try to hold it steady?") Jashol asked Omaith, the one given an actual firearm by the Githyanki, and more importantly, the Emperor. So far, the village guy had started practicing with it, using some old clay pots for target. Let's just say that his aim was more than could be desired at the moment. ("I've seen shots inside a barn more accurate than that.")

("Well excuse me, but have you ever used one of these before?") Omaith bit back.

("No.") Jashol answered him. ("But I don't have to be stupid to tell that you ain't a crackshot with that.")

("Oh, so you'd think that just because your father taught you how to use a crossbow, you're better than me?")

("...You had to go there...") Jashol replied coldly, cracking his fingers.

("Whoa, whoa, you two.") Symon stepped in between the two. "Easy. Omaith, you can count yourself fortunate because the Emperor gave you his personal weapon, but you're letting pride get in the way of what's at stake. And you Jashol, I'm worried for her too, and I'd go crazy if anything permanent was done to her, but you're starting to go overboard with your emotions. We can only hope that lady Rad'na is doing her best.")

("I know...") Jashol replied, calming down. ("But all this waiting is just a bit too much. I can't see if-")

"Symon-san?" The familiar voice of the bookworm called out, making the whole trio turn to see the girl accompanied by the village children, waving at them with her new right arm. "Jashol-san.."

("Wa-hey! She's alright!") Symon called out and ran first, grabbing the girl into a hug. Well, the girl became flustered by this move, but she welcomed it at least. ("Hey, how are you doing now?")

"Eh?" Nodoka didn't know what he said, so she decided to be blunt. "I don't really.. comprehend."

("...Uh oh.") The ranger said, whilst the children were gathering around them, and Jashol was approaching too. ("I think we have a problem.") He told the other member of the reunited team. ("Big one.")

("Wait, how come that we can't understand her now, when we could before?") Jashol wondered as Ielenia from before ran up to them, holding a white board along with a black chalk, and then catching her breath.

("I believe I can answer that question.") Ielenia spoke to the two. ("Omaith, look after the children whilst I talk to our guests.")

("Okay, okay, Ie. Hey, kids! Care to hear the big story you've been waiting on?")

("YAAY!") Children screamed as he took them away, whilst the trio of adventurers sat down in front of the elf, who was drawing on the board with the chalk to reveal the problem being presented to them.

("Here's the problem.") She said, revealing what she had drawn. It was actually very simple. The board had been divided in two, the left having a Githyanki head above small figure heads of themselves, whilst the right had also one, though crossed over. The left also revealed the small heads talking in bubbles in the same scripture language, and at the bottom, a smiley face. The right on the other hand had the head representing Nodoka talk the same scripture as before, whilst the heads of Symon and Jashol respectively, spoke another. At the bottom was a head having several question markers above its head.

"...I think I see the problem now..." Nodoka spoke first, realizing what this was about. They needed telepathy in order to understand each other just talking. She had a spell for that, but no foci. The Illithids had taken them away.

("Mister Rufus!") Ailis called out from behind, running up to hug the old lich man, in his robe outfit, though seemingly more brown than back at Zuriith-ma. The old man welcomed the little girl and took her in his arms, lifting her up. ("Look, look, the Witch is over there with Ie.") She pointed at the girl over by Ielenia's side, only to receive a minor blow to the head.

(It's not polite to point at people, young one.") Rufus told her gently before putting her down. ("I know Nodoka from before, too.") Walking over to the quartet, he caught glimpse of the board Ie had drawn, then looking at the trio in front of the elf. Then he rubbed the bookworm's head in a nice manner, as if he was being nice to a pet. "Does that make things easier?"

"What?" Nodoka said first, suddenly understanding what the lich had said. "I can..."

"Hey, we can understand each other now!" Jashol said, suddenly speaking in Japanese for some reason. "What the?"

"You know of me, Jashol." Rufus said as the four of them on the ground rose up. "I'm a powerful sorcerer, on par with the Githyanki Archmage. There's little that I cannot do when it comes to magic. All I did was make a little... nudge in Nodoka so that she would understand what we said, and vice versa."

"Finally." Ielenia said, standing up quickly. "I'm afraid that taking time to teach her the normal way would take too much time."

"Do not worry, Ie." Rufus assured the elf lady. "I was just making things a lot easier. Now we can all talk on par."

"Oh, good. I was afraid I'd have to take lessons in, whatever language Nodoka was talking in." Symon said, pulling out a canteen and drinking from it deeply. "And I think I need to refill this again..."

"Ooooh..." A new arrival groaned not far from them and they saw the Archmage stagger whilst clutching his head. "Stupid headache... Last time I'm dozing off on the table..."

"Lord Ashracai..." Ielenia bowed before the seemingly prestigious sorcerer. "Shall I wake her up for you?"

"No, that will not be needed." He told her, as Rad'na was seen holding Efromm up her shoulder walking up behind him. "She woke up on her own."

"Too much noise... Make it stop..." Efromm mumbled, obviously having a hangover. "Ootooh, why is the ground spinning?"

"This is what happens when you drink too much of that wine, Efromm." Rad'na scolded her gently. "You brought this on yourself."

"...Hate you..." The blond slurred.

"Everyone..." Nodoka spoke softly, catching most attention. "...Why... are you gathered here?"

Most of the elders looked at each other, save for Efromm, still trying to get grips with her hangover, before her father cleared his throat first. "Well, we all took part of the... rescue operation back on the mountain. That aside, we want to be sure of something first... Do you, want to go home, Nodoka?"

"Eh?" The bookworm's expression was stunned, as were those of Symon and Jashol standing next to her.

"It's just that, well... you've been through more... than, what most people trapped on an unknown world would have to go through." He explained to her. "You've... grown. Considerably, and that... that alone is better than what we anticipated. Gaining new friends and all... but... this civil war would be too much, even on you... So uh... Oh, damnit, I'm never good at these speeches when it comes to family..." He paused to take a deep breath. "No one would blame you if you decided to just quit here and head back home to Earth where everybody else is... I mean, there you have people who like you, people you like and are best friends with... You'd have a better future being there, I suppose. Uh... at least... you had an interesting time here..."

Nodoka took in this and considered the possibilities here. On one hand she could go home, be back to see Negi-sensei, be back with her original friends. Hell, even seeing Evangeline would be nice. On the other, she could stay and face the music at the enemies ahead of her. Then again... "I... cannot go home."

"Huh?" Her dad just got the most hilarious expression on his face, just then.

"I mean, I want to go home. I really do." Nodoka explained more detailed. "But... people here don't know me as you do, Father. I think you're wrong about them not blaming me for leaving. If I left... that would only make them hate me for being a coward. Well, even if I could, how could I leave with a problem like this on my hands?" She asked, wiping away small tears. "Should I stay? Or go? This sounds very selfless of me to say that I'm staying, but the option of leaving simply isn't... available for me just now. That's why I'm staying, to fix this mess. [If it's a big problem, then hold on to and move on.] Those are words of someone my master Negi-sensei admires."

Those words surprised pretty much everybody there listening. "Besides... it would be unfair if I just left, leaving Hina and Boris-san behind, wouldn't it?"

Ashracai sighed deeply first. "You sure you want to stay? Despite this generous offer?"

"I'm sure. And I think... I think Negi-sensei would only scold me for quitting like a coward, too. But it's not like you were going to try something."

_Now that's harsh..._ Rufus noted to himself. In sheer reaction to what the Witch had said, the children screamed in joy and rushed towards the bookworm, making her fall down and hugging her tightly for staying with them.

"Aaiiie!" Efromm screamed in pain, though and fell down to the ground, holding tight on to her ears. "Make the hurting stop..."

"Alright, alright, you big whiner!" Rad'na gave in to the blond's demands and gave her a cure through her magic. "Here! It'll save you from the nasty, wasty hangover, okay?"

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child, priestess." The High Queen tried.

"Oh, well." Ashracai said to the bookworm. "I guess I had to ask, at least, if that's what you really want, Nodoka."

"Well, sorry to disappoint, Father..."

"No, you did well." He replied with a smile. "Now then, should we head back into the village? We need to talk."

"You see... we've decided on something." Ashracai said, surprising the girl as they were in the square altogether.

"Eh?"

"This is something we agreed upon, given the amount of events that has happened so far to you, and what is to come eventually." He explained more detailed.

"Meaning, **No,** you don't get to argue about this, Nodoka." Rad'na added in the end. "We've decided, to train you."

"T-train?" The bookworm exclaimed.

"Yeah. Although by law, Githyanki are forbidden to teach magic to humans, you however are a special case. As you were adopted by me, you are officially an Imperial. Not to mention, we get to choose whom we get to teach, as well." Ashracai told her. "Rufus was a human, so he never was under any circumstances forbidden to teach, he just chose not to. Now, we are going to teach you various skills. I'll be teaching you those spells from all those books we brought you from Earth, for starters, as well as a few other techniques."

"I'll be applying some of the magic that is utilized here on Tu'narath, to help you understand how it goes, if not learn how to use it, yourself." Rufus said.

"I may not be able to teach you some magic myself," Efromm stepped forward. "But I can do the next best thing: I'm going to teach you the style of **Vertoth**, our own honed martial arts. I am one of the best in the field and you have paid attention in the past to teachers from what I hear."

"I'm no teacher myself," Rad'na lamented. "But if you get beat up in the middle of the training, I'll heal you up straight away. If it comes to it, I can even bring you back from the dead."

"Rad'na, that's really not encouraging..." Ashracai scolded her. "So, we'll teach you these things and in say... about a week, I think, you'd be more prepared for when the next tough opponent comes, okay?"

"Well..." The bookworm started off, but she was cut off.

"**No."** Fashtar said right behind them, standing next to a pedestal with a veil above something round that wasn't there before. "That does not sound good at all."

"Fash?" Efromm asked. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, Efromm, that while the foundation of the idea is good, there are key flaws to it right now as it is." Fashtar told them. "And before you start yapping, I'll tell you the two biggest: Location and time. Location: We're still in sight of Mt. Ilsensine, and not far from where Nodoka's last battle was. If one were to do the simple geographics, we're the only place around that she could turn to for safety. Meaning, the Illithids could come back and enslave us all without us even noticing it. And Drinde is still out there. He could find this place in a jiffy. Time: It's too short. A week or so is not going to cut it. For all her powers yet, Nodoka was born without natural talent for magic, unlike our sorcerers, not to mention that it took her months of practice and study to be at her current level."

"So what are you suggesting, we send Nodoka to school or something?" Ashracai mocked the military commander. Ergo, the Imperium's best commander, but still.

"That's **exactly** what I am suggesting, Lord Ashracai." Fashtar replied, procuring a bunch of official papers and handing them over to Nodoka. "I've already filled in applications, all that's needed are her own name, date of birth, signature, etc. I've also intended to hold speech lessons with her one-on-one for learning Draconic."

Nodoka looked through the papers, wearing those glasses that Ashracai had made to understand foreign writing. She didn't know fully what they were talking about. "And how long do you intend for her training to go on, if we follow this plan?"

"Fourteen-" Fashtar told him but was cut off himself.

"Fourteen days?" Ashracai asked. "That's only twice as long and-"

"Fourteen **years.**" The eye-patched Githyanki told them sternly, surprising everybody. "Seven years in school, seven years of field practice. I've taken precaution to this."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Rufus stopped the Gith there for a moment. "Fashtar, we get your proposal to the concept, but just what in Baator are your reasons for going this far? You didn't think this up, did you?"

"First: The civil war with Ifrith." Fashtar countered immediately. "Regardless of what is going on and what is about to happen, High King Ifrith is still the number one villain for Nodoka. He is a man with military experience who's been on the throne of Samasal for **500** years, giving him centuries of strategic thinking, not to mention a vast pool of soldiers to start with. Plus, he could very well get the aid of Samasal's own magocracy while he's at gaining support against Nodoka and her own small band of allies. Granted, you and Efromm are her allies, but it will still take weeks before you can muster a proper assault on Samasal. By then, Ifith will have mounted a powerful defense against two fronts."

"Er... that's a good reasoning... wait, first?"

"Second: Fate Averruncus." Fashtar continued. "From what I've been told second-hand, he is here, along with an X amount of followers. We have no idea where he is, but we do know why: he's working with that bitch Vlaakith CLVII, meaning he and Nodoka are going to clash again. Translated, Nodoka is up against a mage that her own **master** couldn't beat on his own, and she was, what, the **weakest** of his partners... in comparison to the others of the White Wing? Now here she is, alone without her more familiar party members, against a powerful construct mage that could easily kill her in just one shot. Don't know about you, but I sure am not taking that shot."

"Ger... can't really argue with that..."

"Third: Drinde. As I said earlier, he is still out there and he's regenerating himself, or trying to find a healer to patch him up. We know that that thing is out for Nodoka as well, meaning the end of our race. You're the one who confronted him, Ashracai and you come up with a lame idea like this? A week simple practice out in the open? There is a chance of 64% that Drinde could very well ambush us in that time and since he's supposedly only harmable by the gods, what chance do you think we have against him?"

"Well, we could teleport him against his own will..."

"Yes and put him where?" Fashtar countered. "Wherever he'll pop in, there is bound to be catastrophe in his wake. As much as Nodoka is the main objective to protect, I'd rather not have that lich wander around freely on **my** world. We all know that teleporting into space doesn't work either, too."

"I see your point."

"I'm not done yet. Fourth: Nodoka's arm. She lost her right arm in a direct confrontation with Drinde, and she got lucky in that the old priest destroyed Drinde's body, albeit temporarily. Even so, she lost her arm in the process. The psychological trauma to that could still remain and when she meets him again, what do you think would happen? I for one want her to be fully prepared next time they meet, not freezing up in front of him, making it an easy win for Drinde. And finally fifth: The Illithids. Those A-holes are still out there, too, with Kas-Far, using her old sword, which was indestructible if I recall things correctly, as the foundation for his body. Not to mention that he was connected to the Elder Brain, meaning he's got near god-like psionic powers. We're talking level 10 here, maybe even higher. None of us here, save Rad'na, is level 10, meaning we can say bye-bye to our Will saves and then we're Illithid snacks for weeks. Need I continue my reasoning?"

"That's not needed." Nodoka spoke up, catching their attention. "This matter is about me, no one else. It's for me to decide in the end. Fashtar-san makes a valuable fundamental answer, which is very thought through, with the reasons in full understanding." She said, rubbing her newly regained right arm. "I'll do it. I'll take the school course."

"Good." Fashtar let out a deep breath. "Any questions before we start?"

"A few. You have taken precaution to the fourteen years of training I'm gonna be put through?" Nodoka asked first.

"Of course." He told her and revealed underneath the veil a large resort. "You're familiar with this kind of dimension magic, Nodoka. You'll be spending fourteen years in there, whilst the rest of us, I hope, will be out here for a week."

"Given this amount of reasoning, you would be a mage, yourself, Fashtar-san?" Nodoka inquired nex.

"...Yes. I was not born a Sorcerer like your dad, but I have taken lessons in magic, effectively making me a Wizard, instead." Fashtar told her, revealing that bit of knowledge about himself. "Anything else?"

"...You do have something to counter the aging effects while I'm in there, right?" She asked nervously.

"Would I have said 'fourteen years' right off the bat if we didn't?" Fashtar countered with his own question and smirk.

"Oh. Well, that makes thing easier, then." Nodoka said. "I'll just fill this in and then we can be underway, yes?"

"Of course." Fashtar said. "Take your time." With that, Nodoka was directed into Rad'na's home by Ie, followed by Symon and Jashol for discussion. "...Why are you looking at me like that?" The eye-patched Githyanki asked the others.

"What made you change your mind?" Rufus asked first. "I was under the impression that you were against teaching Nodoka."

"Well... I was a fool, last night." Fashtar admitted. "I was too much blinded by old memories of the Great War that I forgot just who Nodoka really is. I let my anger and pride get in the way and in that state, I mistook her for being the same as they were. She's not. Period. Nodoka didn't get her artifact for the sake of abusing it, she got it by being too innocent to abuse it, really."

"So because of what you remember from the War, you thought too much negative?" Efromm asked him, stepping forward. "That's... understandable, to some extent."

"Yeah. Memories of Klar came to me as well." Fashtar said as well.

"Ah yes. Your son." Ashracai said slowly. "He didn't deserve such a cruel death."

"Well, at any rate, I was a complete moron last night, so I have changed my mind. I did put a few restrictions on this, though."

"Just one last question." The Archmage asked him. "What made you change your mind?"

"Oh, just a conversation with an old friend." Fashtar answered him. "He's helped me out of more than one pinch in the past. I figured I might grant him a favor by doing this."

* * *

"So you're actually going through with this?" Jashol asked the girl as she was finishing reading the papers more properly by the table, so that she would know more about the education provided in the resort school.

"Yes, I am, Jashol-san." She answered him as she filled in her name first. "As much as spending fourteen years in there doesn't seem very much thrilling to me, Fashtar-san does have a point. And he knows another thing. I need that amount of practice, apparently, if I am to catch up with the opponents we're facing ahead of us. I don't know, maybe I'll get better than they, but it is going to take time."

"Even so..." Symon said before taking another sip from his canteen. "I'd hate to see you changed by this education, Nodoka. I mean, what if you went mad with the power or something like that?"

"Have you seen me abuse my powers so far?"

"...Point."

"Guys, I won't be aging or something. Fashtar-san seems to have taken precaution to it, so technically, I'll still be fifteen, maybe sixteen in age when I come out again. In the meantime, do you think you could try to figure out where the others are? I'm getting worried about them. They might need us more."

"I could help with that." Ie spoke up. "I may be a slave and all, but I know magic as well, as mistress Rad'na has taught me well over the years. I'm afraid I can only scry on them for the moment, but with any luck, we might be able to contact them, as well."

"Thank you, Ielenia." Jashol said to the elf lady. "We might actually have a chance at this."

"Okay, then, here's the plan:" Nodoka spoke up, finishing with the papers and rising up from the table. "I'll go to this school and take lessons in magic, and Draconic as Fashtar-san put it. In the meantime, you try to find where the others are at the moment. As Ielenia-san put it, there is the chance of getting in contact with them too."

"Right." Rad'na said from the doorway. "I'll just go into the main city a few miles away and buy all the Sending scrolls they have there so you can contact them. I'll show you how to use them." She said. "...What? I'm willing to help out family anytime."

"We'll be staying here in Boa, though, until we can get to a better location to help them, though." Symon concluded. "We don't know where they are and we can't be walking into any danger."

"...Might as well teach these people how to fight, while we're at it." Jashol said after a while. "I was in Dambrath's army most of my life. I enrolled at 14 and served there for five years."

"Dambrath, huh..." Rad'na said, walking up to them. "We could do well with an instructor from there. You get out there tomorrow and teach us hillbillies how to "properly" fight, okay?"

"Now, you're just being mean, Yanki." The spearman said.

"Well, if that's everything, we should get started." Nodoka said, starting to head out the house. "See you in a week then, guys."

"Good luck." Symon wished her well.

"Have fun."

"Don't go around making pranks." Rad'na told her.

"I wish you well on your studies, Lady Nodoka." Ie bowed at her as they set to work on reuniting with everyone else they knew.

**

* * *

A/N: Finally, this is done. As always, not as I intended, but worked out in the end. And there you have it, as to why I was so cruel to Honya-chan all along. Justification for her to go to a proper school, all of it. I put the scene where Fashtar explained everything on the animesuki forums a bit earlier so I came to a conclusion that she should learn it. Anyway, Notes:**

** -Rad'na's song is actually the official translation of "Hoshizora Letter" sung by Kate Bristol, Asuna's English VA. Now, I realized that songs will appear here, but let me tell you first that they will only appear when I want them to, got it? Good.**

** - For all of you familiar with D&D, Asmodeus is an Arch-devil, and now in 4th Edition, God of Tyranny. Here, I don't follow the rules and such that the game does, so I just roll with the universe, instead. Therefore, I make it a mixture of 3.5 and 4th edition of D&D, for the record. **

** -What, you were expecting Japanese to be the universal language for the entire multiverse or something? Chapter 9 explains that the Githyanki are telepathic, and if someone just skimmed it, here's it again: **_"__These aliens are psionically gifted, meaning they are able to speak telepathically to others. In the event that they meet a species incapable of understanding their own language, which would happen most of the time, they send the content of what they speak into the other side's mind, making it seem like that they speak the same language. And they pick up the meaning of what aliens speak to them. Hence why the SS were able to talk Japanese to the others back on Earth."_** See? That's how it goes. Now don't you forget it.**

**-I set up a poll about which school Nodoka should specialize in. Now, before you vote, I recommend the Forgotten Realms Wiki and look up the section of magic schools to understand better. Now, for plot reasons, Evocation is explicitly barred for her, and Necromancy is barred, unless Divination is chosen. Take your pick on this.**

**Next time, we'll be discussing Character Alignment regarding a certain character in this story. See ya then! ...I gotta update the honeymoon fic...**


	42. Boris' decisions

**A/N:**_Did you know that it takes more than just the Protagonist, Deuteragonist and the Antagonist to make a fully set story? Well if you didn't, that's your problem. The point here is that the focus here will not be on our bookworm heroine, nor on our genius mage protagonist nor the main antagonist. Nope, it is on the supporting main characters to Nodoka this time, as they rightfully deserve some spotlight of their own. Plus, I built the story so that their problems need be addressed quite soon. As in, _**_now_**_. Now to the first bunch of them._

_

* * *

This is the mental log of Boris Ivanov, SAMBO martial artist, Russian military, Sergeant rank at the age of 17. I was a follower of my master, Colonel Alexander Gaidar, known to the world as the Fist of Destruction. A few months ago, he was arrested for illegally sending troops to another country and surrendered after losing a battle to a Jujitsu master, known as Koetsuji Akisame, the Philosopher Warrior. I devoted myself to finding my Master._

_And now I am on an alien planet, stuck with a hobgoblin whose language I can't comprehend any longer._

The big Russian had been led away from the battle that scattered their team by Bax, the hobbo in their party. The alchemical humanoid had been on the lookout for something ever since they retreated but Boris couldn't figure out what since they could not understand each other's language. _Bax has been searching high and low for landmarks that he can recognize on his own. I wonder if he truly worries about Katsura-san's condition and is trying to find someone who can fix her._

Indeed. They had a third member of their group. Hinagiku Katsura had taken a hit for Boris during the battle and hasn't woken up since. She had a steady heartbeat at least and she breathed but slowly, as if she was sleeping. The Russian figured it had to do with magic, since he had learned of it. He'd been forced to carry her on his back since then and look for signs of any improvement on her condition.

It's been three days already and no such thing had occurred.

_My orders right now is to ensure the safety of both Katsura-san and Miyazaki-san. But since Miyazaki-san is nowhere to be seen, Katsura takes priority. We've seen no one else from our main group of companions or any of our soldiers. It's most likely to assume that the soldiers have all been killed or fallen back into their old lives someplace else. As for our comrades... Katsura-san would say that we shouldn't give up looking for them. Miyazaki-san would certainly believe that they're fine, so I have to support what they would say. But frankly... I don't know where we are. I don't know whether or not the others are okay. And I don't know where Bax is taking us._

("This way.") Bax called in his own hoarse language as they passed into a glen of the big forest they had entered the night before. Boris didn't know the words but altogether, they formed in his head as the hobgoblin trying to guide him. Plus, he had nowhere else to go. Not with Katsura in this state. ("Help should be close by.")

_If only I could understand what it is Bax is trying to tell me..._ Boris added to his mental log. _It doesn't seem to make sense. Before the battle, we knew what we told each other but now, I can't grasp a single of what he's saying. How did- _Then it struck him as he slipped on a root and nearly tripped. _Wait, the Githyanki. Now it makes sense. The most logical conclusion is that given with them having psychic abilities must also mean they have telepathy. Rev'keth must be telepathically gifted as well, meaning he had to relay everything we said to one another through his head. I suddenly have a great respect for him now... shame he's not here..._

At last though, Bax threw up the universal symbol among military at least to stop: Holding up your hand in the air with all the fingers spread out. And he had good reason. Boris noted then that living without tarmac and vehicles running on gas and diesel had a major advantage. You could properly hear other things in the forest. Footsteps were rapidly coming in their direction. His instincts kicked in and Boris put Katsura down and prepared for a fight with his bare hands. Bax didn't seem to move though, as if he was expecting this.

The footsteps stopped when they were about on a distance of fifty feet away from them and the Russian let his guard down for a brief second. Then a slam was heard on a strong tree branch and he looked to where the noise was. A Rakshasan female with black fur, clad in chain-mail and barefooted whilst a blue cloak covered her head and frontal torso. She carried two steel daggers decorated with a ruby each on the pommel. Much like the rest of her kin, the hands were turned outwards with the thumbs as well. She snarled viciously at the two humans but Bax seemed to know her.

He spoke to her in soft tones of his own hoarse voice as if they were friends. She replied to him in hisses and the same language as if they were a threat. Boris could only stay quiet and stand guard over Katsura's limp body. The two aliens (in his perspective) talked in their own way and Bax made the occasional gesture to Boris and Katsura with which she seemed to pour scorn on. Boris knew exactly why she was behaving like this.

Humans were certainly not the nicest of species in the galaxy, if not the universe.

The Rakshasan female finally shook her head and then hissed at Bax before taking off into the forest. Bax motioned for Boris to come along. The Russian picked up Katsura and followed suit into the forest.

_**Over at another party**_

"It's been hours... and not a sign of anybody on this version of the planet." Asuna groaned as their trio of wanderers searched for something that would stand out on the scorched earth. They had woken up from within the wreckage of a small hut not too long ago and then set about looking for anything that would help them know where they were. Saber, the appointed leader of them, knew at least they were in Samasal but beyond that she was lost. Their Protoss seemed more or less concerned about their personal security as he was taking up the rear of them.

"I know, I know." Saber lamented on their bleak hope of finding someone who could explain what happened here. "Just keep looking, please. We never know when something might turn up."

"All due respect, Saber," Their rear guard spoke up at last after hours of silence. "But we have traveling for hours and there has been no sign of anything to suggest that we are not alone."

"...Just trust me." Saber replied after a moment of thinking for herself. "I'm clinging on to hope that we'll find something."

**"And you found it."** A voice said from behind them and they turned to find one of the most unpleasant sights they had ever seen. **"Or rather, it found you."**

"Tanar'ri." Saber uttered quietly as they saw the great demon. The great red humanoid with massive bat-like wings armed with a flaming sword seemed eager to engage them. The Gith Knight felt herself itching for a fight with this thing, even if it would be a futile effort. But she did have several edges most people would forget when they saw her as a dumb fighter. "I'll take you on, Demon. Come face me instead of these two."

**"Heh. Thought all you guys were gone."** The demon said whilst taking a good look at the Gith woman. **"And you are a female at that. Heh heh heh. Must be my lucky day. I'll present your head to the Great One and be rewarded quite nicely for it."**

"You are free to try, Tanar'ri." Saber spoke softly before appearing directly behind the demon's head. It was faster than she anticipated though, as it ducked down fast before flapping its wings to get up into the air. It flew up into the air before trying a dive straight at Saber's two companions.

"Gee, for such a powerful demon, you are really dumb." Asuna told it as she summoned out her Hama no Tsurugi greatsword and then an instant later, cut the demon in two and it vaporized into smoke. "Well that was anti-climatic if you ask me."

"That was fast of you, friend." The Protoss praised the redhead. "I could barely react in time."

"I guess I made a fool of myself back there." Saber said as she walked up to them, a blush slightly visible on her cheeks. "You just went in and cut it in half with one strike."

"No, no, Saber-san. You're not useless. It's just my artifact is designed to banish summoned beings. I reckon that Tanar'ri fellow wasn't so tough after all, too."

"But if the Tanar'ri run rampant on Tu'narath of all places, something has gone hideously wrong." Saber said to herself. "But thanks anyway."

"Good to know that there is peace between us now." The Protoss said. "Now we should- what's this?" He asked abruptly as the ground began to glow underneath them.

"Aww man, I hate it when this happens." Asuna said before the light engulfed them completely.

Moments later, they found themselves in a darker place. It was an old library but there were signs of ruin everywhere and books were scattered all over the place. "Okay, we should first determine who brought us here and why." Asuna said the first thing once they looked around.

"_That won't be necessary."_ A much older voice said, making them turn around. _"I can tell you what you need to know about this place."_

They had come face to face with old High King Rufus.

_**At school**_

The bookworm sighed loudly as she collapsed on her bed in her own dormroom. "Ten hours straight of studying cantrips..." She lamented to herself. "And that's just the first day."

Nodoka had been enrolled in the school known as Greenwood's Academy, a quite prestigious college for coming wizards. Apparently Fashtar had attended this school as well when he was studying magic and he had from time to time (on suspicions based that he had a healthy talk with the school's principal) returned to teach here as well. Our little bookworm felt herself a bit prideful on that such a good former student of the same academy who taught practicable magic had recommended her. _No doubt I'll be harassed about it by the other students. _Still, the teachers had no sense of favoritism among themselves as everyone was taught hard about magic and its uses at Greenwood's. She had been worked to the bone about the theory and practice of the basic cantrips or as she had come to know them through Haruna's constant video-gaming; 0-level spells. Everyone knew those who attended this place.

_It's certainly hard here. I should be able to follow the rules here easily enough. I do that and study hard, things should be good for me. _She thought to herself before her mind came to think of her friends out there. _Hina, Boris-san... Rev'keth-san, Raydan-san, Bax-san... I don't know where you are but I do hope you're safe at least. It's good to know you're all alive but you gotta be together if we gotta have a chance of winning this civil war... Eurgh what am I gonna do-_

"Hi, what's your name?" The voice cut itself into her head, making the bookworm wide awake and rising up from her bed. On the other bed sat a most peculiar girl. She seemed about the same age as Nodoka but she did sport elf ears like Ie-san outside the resort so she couldn't really tell her proper age. She had blue eyes and snow white hair. Neither was any spectacular about this girl but her pigment was. Rather than the normal pale or tanned pigmentation of people, this one was... charcoal black. "So you gonna answer me or what?"

"Er... sorry. My name is Nodoka." She replied to the black skinned girl who merely smiled first.

"I'm Elacia Arcurio Melati Belmere-Wysiwyg. But you can say Ela for short." Her seemingly new roommate told the bookworm. "And I'm your dormmate in our time here."

"Er... likewise." Nodoka replied not knowing what to say. "That's an awkwardly long name."

"My mom was Drow, okay? She insisted that I have it." Ela told her. "For the record, my dad's a human. Quite an odd coupling, wouldn't you agree?"

"Kinda." Nodoka said. "But how come you're here?"

"I'd rather not say that on the first day." Ela told her. "For now, let's go with that I was first apprentice to an archmage who showed me a few things first before he shipped me to Greenwood's. Said I'd get an even better education here. From what I've seen so far, I'm better off with him and his group. So what about you?"

"Um, well... are you familiar with the Githyanki wizard Fashtar?" Nodoka asked her first. When Ela shook her head, the bookworm continued. "Well, there was a bit of an incident with me and some... I think they were called Illithids, but at any rate Fashtar had a talk with my father and older sister and had me sent here. Wrote me a recommendation letter, according to what I've been told so far."

"He wrote you a recommendation letter to this place?" Ela asked. "Huh. I think I'll be seeing him in Evocation or Necromancy to get a look at him. So what school are you gonna specialize in?"

"Huh?"

"It's quite normal for a wizard to specialize in a certain school of magic." Ela informed her. "From what my old master told me, there are eight of them: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Evocation, Illusion, Enchantment, Necromancy and Transmutation. Figured out which one you're gonna take?"

"Er... is there any advantage to specializing?" The bookworm asked before someone knocked on the door. Ela told them to come in and a familiar face to Honya at least walked in.

"Sorry about intruding like this but I couldn't help but overhear." Fashtar said as he grasped a chair.

"Fashtar-san." Nodoka said.

"Wait, that's Fashtar?" Ela inquired. "Huh. Figured you without the eye-patch."

"Yes, that's what most people say on first meeting." The eye-patched Gith said. "Anyhow, I overheard about specializing in a school."

"Oh yeah, we were talking about that. Mind telling my new roommate what that's about, Master Fashtar?"

Fashtar took a look at the half-drow before he gave off a minor smirk. "Very well, since you ask so nicely."

* * *

"_I'm putting it on."_

"_What's he putting on?"_

"_He's putting on the Wall-of-Text-Construction Helmet."_

"_A what?"_

"_Don't ask."_

* * *

"Specializing in one specific school of magic has many advantages to it, as well as disadvantages. In choosing a school of magic, a wizard becomes much more efficient at that school. He gains control of more spells from it as well as he gets more skilled at them. Let's say for instance that a wizard has chosen Transmutation as his chosen school. In that scenario, he is more capable of changing the physical capacities of himself or his companions."

"Okay... what are the disadvantages to it?" Ela asked whilst actually raising her hand.

"Well... the downside is that you have to discard the access to two other schools." Fashtar told them. "You'd be unable to use spells from those schools, not to mention any scrolls or wands that fit in with them too."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much." Fashtar told them. "At any rate, I only came to check in on Honya."

"Well, I seem to be doing fine for now, but it's just the first day and all."

"Hmm, true. I should be going." Fashtar rose up from his chair and walked over to the door. "Oh, I recalled." He turned his to stare at them. "Don't pick Evocation. That school is not one I recommend if you wanna be a good wizard." With that, the elder wizard left the two students alone.

"Huh. I think it's good advice. But I think I'll go universal. What about you?" Ela said whilst turning to Nodoka who looked a bit puzzled over the choice.

"I think...I'm gonna wait for a few days before I choose." She replied to the half-drow. "It's a big choice to specialize and I want to make sure I get it right."

"Sure. Do as you wish. But make sure you tell me when you decide."

"I will." Nodoka replied. "C'mon, it's been a long day and we're both tired. Good night."

_**Back to our original stars**_

Boris really wished he knew what the humanoids had told each other as he had been led to a large house in the middle of a huge cemetery. The female Rakshasan might have led them into a trap. Bax seemed to trust her though so he had to as well.

Once inside the house, the Russian saw first hand something he didn't want to see. There were skeletal parts everywhere hanging from the walls or the ceiling. Piles of skulls lay here and there neatly organized around a blood red circle of magic. Inside the circle, there was probably the biggest Rakshasan Boris would ever see. He was up to eight foot tall though thin, dressed in elaborate clothing to match royalty or very rich nobility. He had the head of a white tiger and matched it with his fur color and pattern. But the staff he was holding and the skeleton parts strewn out revealed to the Russian what he was.

"Necromancer." Boris whispered, actually shivering slightly. Much thanks to that was because of necromancers' own reputation back home on Earth. Now he felt even more nervous as he watched his hobgoblin companion talk to the tall tiger man. He seemed calm and yet worried at the same time. The tiger man seemed almost bored when he spoke back. But when Bax mentioned Miyazaki and Katsura, Boris got interested and the same could be said for the tiger man. The Rakshasan spoke in an inquiring tone and Bax turned to the Russian, gesturing for him to reveal Katsura. When he did, he lay her down before the circle and backed off slowly, giving the necromancer room to inspect her.

He checked her pulse, eyes, breathing and reflexes. Katsura didn't give a positive on the last test, he said something to the female. She went to fetch something from a cabinet against the wall while he pointed Bax in the direction to what seemed like a big ale barrel. What the, was he going for a drink at a time like this?

The female held out a small vial for the tiger Rakshasan which he took and then when Bax came presenting a pint of ale, he took that as well and emptied the vial's contents in it. After that, the pint was presented to Boris. "What?" He spoke in his own Russian tongue before seeing Bax gesturing what he should do. A pint in his hands was quite obvious what to do with. For once, the SAMBO fighter felt reluctant what to do but since Katsura had taken a spell for him back in the battle, he knew he owed her for that.

He downed it all at once and nearly wanted to throw up on the spot.

The next thing he knew was that he was looking up at the roof...

* * *

Boris woke up on rock. Not a rock floor... actual rock. It was smooth yet rough at the same time. He also found his legs drenched in water and found himself at an ocean. It went off into the big horizon and the fog was too thick for him to see anything through. He also found the sky to be dark, illuminated by wondrous star constellations that glistened like the brightest silver. "Where am I?"

"That's a very good question when finding yourself in a different location than the last one you found yourself in." A female voice behind him spoke up and he turned around on the spot, seeing a lightly blue skinned woman in a purple modern suit and glass. She had short blond hair. "Mr. Ivanov?"

"Yes..." He replied not knowing what to do or to say.

"I'm the deva assigned to your special case." She said reaching out a hand in friendship. "To answer your original question... hm... how should I put this... you're in Heaven. At least one part of it."

Boris actually blinked in genuine surprise. "...What?" He asked loudly first. "I'm... dead?"

"No, you're not dead. You're like drifting between the Material Plane and the Celestial Planes. You could say you're dead and yet you're not. Your body is fully alive and unharmed whilst your soul is here."

"So why am I wearing my bronze armor and all?" He had to ask that one.

"That's because you're influenced by the outside world, seeing yourself in armor. Your stay here won't be long after all, so you'll be like that." She told the Russian as she led him to a modern desk on the small rock coast along with a holoscreen computer and took her seat by the computer. "Back to the point, you must be confused about what I'm talking about."

"That one should have been obvious." Boris said in sarcasm.

"I'm afraid that tone won't help speed things up here." She replied to him harshly. "It's rare we get a case like yours these days and we'd like to sort it out before you truly die so we know where we can put you."

"Huh. And here I thought I'd be sent to Hell."

"That is being considered as well. We're only trying to help you here." She said. "First, let's have a look at your permanent record... Hmm... you seemed to be quite the model student in elementary and half-way through middle school. Then we should have a look at your more recent events. Being signed up into YOMI?"

"I would have perished otherwise." He told her truthfully.

"Infiltrating a foreign country illegally?"

"Orders were absolute."

"Repeating the hunting of dojos after completing most of them?"

"There was one left on that list."

"Following orders to stall those who tried to save a civilian?"

"Orders were absolute."

"Hmm, yes, that is your problem." She said after hearing his answers.

"Pardon?" He asked.

"You're following orders blindly, regardless of what they are. You follow this with a zealotry that it leaves you blind to other options that lay in front of you."

"There's nothing wrong with orders, is there?" Boris asked her whilst scratching his temple. "Surely there is sense in them."

"Of course there is sense in following orders." The deva said. "The problem here though, is what kind of orders they are. You've been listening to the words of a mass murderer and it has been seriously affecting you. If it weren't for a few deeds here and there, I'd chuck your case straight into the Lawful Evil department and then the Legion Devils down there can have you for eternity."

"Few deeds here and there?" Boris repeated the words.

"Let me be blunt with you: In your time with YOMI and YAMI, you have followed orders to the letter, having no troubles with killing people. In a positive light however, you've been doing genuinely Good things out of free will, instead of following orders. Equally, you've been ordered to perform Good deeds, even though they've been done in an effort to save PR for YAMI." The deva told him.

"How does this help in my final judgement?" Boris asked her.

"We follow an old setting. We see Black, White & Gray Morality up here in the Celestial Planes. We also see Ethical decisions here. We get nine different folders in that scenario. As you are now, you are certainly in the Lawful Neutral as you perceive orders being absolute. But here's the thing: Are you Neutral, Good or Evil and are you Lawful? The first case is usually the most easy one.

"Whilst you have killed in the past, you have felt no remorse, shame or guilt over having done this. This is leaning you toward the Evil case for you on a dangerous level. On the other side of the coin, you have also felt no pleasure, joy or satisfaction with these deeds. To help you further, you had doubts during your last mountain trip with your class at Furinkan High about having them killed by your soldiers. When they disobeyed you because they didn't think you had the authority, you turned on them alongside your enemy Kenichi Shirahama and saved your teacher in the process. Once they were done for, you returned to your battle with Mr. Shirahama."

"They disobeyed orders back then. And I couldn't return to Russia without having killed Shirahama Kenichi." Boris told her.

"That's true. In saying that you couldn't return without doing that sets you back down to the Evil side but you lost to him and gave up willingly." The deva said as she clicked down further on his permanent record. "This puts you back into Good territory a few notches as well as obeying Mr. Shirahama's command to not try anything funny for the remainder of the trip. Again, Good territory. Pausing your morals concerns, as for Law... Your motto saying "Orders are Absolute" certainly tells us everything. It's your moral side we're concerned about here. We cannot force you into making a choice, we can only guide you. Back onto your record, you also asked two guys from your class to look after your instructor and the class once you were gone and then requested a transfer form so you could leave for your quest to find your Master, Mr. Gaidar.

"I'm sure my superiors wouldn't blink if I kicked your case into the Lawful Neutral afterlife when you eventually die for real but there is a factor that's preventing me: You're redeeming yourself."

"P-pardon?" Boris stuttered out of himself.

"Yes, you're redeeming your case by having been leashed to Good people. Take a look at your charges for instance where they stand." To that, her holoscreen turned and split into two whilst revealing Katsura on the left (from his point of view) and Miyazaki on the right. They were Lawful Good and Neutral Good respectively.

"What's the difference between Lawful Good and Neutral Good?" The Russian inquired.

"Lawful Good people are those who see goodness within a conduct of honor or a set of laws and always follow them to make sure everybody gets satisfied with the right choice. Neutral Good people do Good for goodness' sake, even if it means using Chaotic acts to gain Lawful benefits and have virtually no bias for or against it." She answered him. "I must confess in that the people they're usually surrounded with are good themselves, with one extraordinary exception in Miyazaki's case."

* * *

"ACHOO!" Haruna sneezed aboard the GPS. Someone must be gossiping.

* * *

"But back to you, Ashracai putting you to protect the two could be seen as an attempt to convert you to the good side. You've been looking out for them ever since they came to the surface and even got so worried about Ms. Katsura's condition that you went to big lengths to have her restored to normal. Which is why you're here to begin with." She continued.

"So... I came to the Lawful Good afterlife in order to retrieve her?" Boris asked just to be sure of that part.

"Yes. She's in one level up, in Mercuria. She's getting along well, but she's not dead and needs to be sent back. That's why you're here." She answered. "In any case, you do possess the qualities to be a truly Lawful Good person. We must however, protest in that you are trying to find a Neutral Evil person just so you can follow his orders again. But here's the thing, you work tirelessly to maintain your current mission. Even if it would mean having yourself killed in the process, you would do so to make sure that your charges are safe. And... that's it."

"That's it?" Boris repeated.

"Yes. You're good to go. You're still in the Lawful Neutral department but keep working alongside Misses Katsura and Miyazaki and you'll be fit for Mount Celestia. For now, a glimpse of Paradise will do for now whilst you fetch Ms. Katsura. There's a boat that will help you get to Mercuria."

"Mercuria?"

"This is Lunia, the Silver Heaven or Silver Sea." The deva told him. "The first level of Celestia. It's because of the freshwater ocean here that we got that name. Doesn't hurt to take a drink from it at all." She said as a bump on the rock led his gaze to an empty boat with a lantern. "Mercuria is the second level, the Golden Heaven. Once you get there, it should be easy to ask around for her."

"Um... thank you, Madam." The Russian stuttered out of himself and walked over to the boat.

"And don't forget, the rewards for good people are many. Make sure you stay true to the path you are on now." She called as he climbed aboard the boat and it took off into the fog. He waved back to make sure he heard her and then sat down to think.

_**After a long boat trip**_

The fog lifted eventually for his eyes after what felt like hours for the Russian. He had taken a few drinks of the water and found it awfully sweet to his taste. It really was freshwater. A golden light illuminated him as his boat approached the upper realms.

Mercuria was ever-green. Lush valleys and gentle hills of grass stretched from horizon to horizon, filled with the occasional village filled with good people who seemed to enjoy the peaceful life. Beings that looked like humanoid dogs skinned red with white wings or turquoise skinned humans with feathered wings seemed to roam the sky, content with their purpose. Would Boris be able to compare himself to these beings one day? He also spotted monuments featuring some deceased hero most likely as they were armed with their weapons and armor on the statue and beautiful maidens and rugged men would walk past them to pay their respect to the great heroes. The creek his boat rode on into this beautiful landscape came to an end and he stepped ashore. He felt out of place in his armor while everybody else was in silk clothing and fur for the cold winds that came on the occasion.

Still, he didn't attract any stares to himself, just those of curious children. But he couldn't linger so he decided to ask around for Katsura. "Ah yes, she is over by the knoll over there, having a sparring match with Ser Thom." A grizzled old man told the Russian as he was washing his old mount. "She's a feisty one, I'll tell you that. Haven't seen anyone that enthusiastic in ages."

"Um... thank you." Boris said and went for the knoll. The clash of weapons drew him closer and he increased his speed. The huffs and assault yells having Katsura's became more clear to him as he came closer and then saw the pink-haired girl in her black armor and her wooden blade. She seemed very content whilst clashing sparring with an elder man with a beard and clad in heavy chain mail. She kept attacking, he kept defending and countering. On the sidelines sat an old man dressed like an old hermit complete with a long old wooden staff and he had a small flock of seven trained canaries, all of them sitting on his shoulders calmly and cleaning their wings.

"Opening!" Ser Thom shouted as he swatted out Katsura's Masamune blade out of her hand, the wooden blade flying high into the air before landing behind the old fighter. "You held it too light in order to make faster attacks against me. There was not enough power to hurt me through my armor." He scolded the girl.

"Mou, not again..." Katsura lamented and then the old watcher started laughing.

"But you can tell that she's getting better for every fight you put her through, Thom." He spoke between his laughs as one of his canaries flew over to the girl and landed on her shoulder. "Hina is improving by the minute since she got here."

"Thank you, Xymor-san." She said. "But I wonder really how long I can stay here."

"No need to worry about that." The old man Xymor said as he got up and fetched his little canary fight from her. "I think your escort back has just arrived." He pointed to where the Russian was and the new arrival flinched.

"Boris!" Katsura exclaimed with joy and ran over to him. She couldn't resist giving him a hug making them both fall over, mostly due to the Russian being caught off guard by her move. "What are you doing here? And how did you get here?"

"First answer, I came here to bring you back. Secondly, you can thank Bax for getting us to a necromancer who sent me here." He answered her truthfully. "I'm going to drink a lot of water to get the taste out of my mouth when we wake up."

"Hmmm... well I certainly wouldn't mind if it had been Hayate-kun instead who came." She said getting up from him. "I still see him as my proper knight in shining armor."

"Well excuse me for not being him, Katsura-san, but he's not on Tu'narath to begin with." He replied with an attempted grin. He needed to work on that. She smiled at him at least.

"Thanks, anyway." She said.

"Now then, how about I send you two kids back?" Xymor asked walking up to them.

"...how?" Boris asked him.

"That's easy, Boris Ivanov-kun." The withered old man told him. "It's because I hold the favor of a god."

_**All of Mercuria shattered around the Earthlings...**_

"Whoa!" The Russian yelled as he suddenly came to first and saw the ceiling he found himself in before ending up in Lawful Good heaven. "What the hell was in that drink?"

("You okay, Boris?") Bax asked him as he walked up to the human. Boris looked at him odd before taking the hobbo's neck in one hand.

"You- I could have been killed, you know, pigface." He told the hobgoblin in his own language but his expression told Bax everything as the "pigface" started shaking underneath the human's gaze.

"Knock it off, Boris." Katsura's voice cut in gaining both their attention. The pink-haired girl rose up from her lying position and felt sore all over. "God, this is gonna feel in the morning."

("Hina. You're fine.") Bax said releasing himself from the Russian's grip.

"Yes and I don't understand a word you're saying." She replied to him as she got up and felt minor pain. "Ow, ow. Ow. What happened to me all this time?"

"I had to carry you." Boris answered her.

The tiger Rakshasan spoke up now gaining the pink-haired girl's attention and Bax went up and talked back with him. He motioned for the two humans to go outside after a chat with the tiger man. Boris understood that much at least and helped his charge get out from there. He didn't feel much secure around necromancers.

"All missing?" She repeated what he told her.

"Yes." Boris replied. "In the time you were unconscious, we had lost track of everybody else."

"And you didn't bother to look for them yourself along with Bax?" Hina inquired of him with an angry tone.

"You were in more immediate danger." He answered her truthfully. "Besides, even if I did find anyone else, I wouldn't understand what they would say, unless they were Miyazaki-san. I merely followed your father's orders to look out for you."

"So... now what? They're all dead and we're the only ones left?"

"No." He cut her short there. "That's not what Miyazaki-san would believe, either. The people we collected are good combatants and our clash with Averruncus told us that we should work as a team. And... you would tell us not to give up hope or stop looking for them."

Hina thought about it for a moment. "...And what would Nodoka say about this?"

"That we should believe in that they're all alive and well." He answered.

The pink-haired girl took in a long breath of air before exhaling and looking out the distance. This was such an entanglement they were in at the moment. What a massive backlash for their team. "...Alright. Let's do it." She said whilst observing some clouds.

"Huh?" The big Russian raised an eyebrow.

"Let's go out there and find them all." She said. "You said it yourself. We shouldn't stop looking for them. Okay, my own condition was more crucial at the time but that's changed now. We are going out there into Samasal and look for my sister, Raydan, Symon, Jashol and Rev'keth-san. And we're not gonna let either Ifrith or Averruncus get the better of us, are we?"

Boris felt a much greater respect for the pink-haired girl as well. She must have been quite a leader back home on Earth. "There's also the problem of learning the language here. We're complete strangers to this land and everything said to us has been filtered to us through either magic or telepathy. Now that we possess neither ability or anyone who can translate for us, we'd be forced to-"

"Learn from scratch." Hina told him, making him flinch. "I'm a skilled linguist myself so it should be easy for me to learn the native language here from scratch. And for the record, I got the equivalent of A+ in 17 languages." She boasted to him. "I'll learn from scratch if I have to."

"...As you wish, Katsura-san." Boris nodded at her boast and determination. "For now, I recommend we head to the nearest village from here. I think I saw one two days ago whilst Bax led me here carrying you."

"Good. We'll head there and then we see where we go from there." Hina said. At that point as if by pointed out, Bax came out with a sack in his hands as well as a white cloak with golden edges. Hina nodded at him and the hobgoblin nodded back whilst offering her the cloak. But before she donned it...

"Um, Katsura-san?" Boris got her attention. "There's something on your left shoulder." "Eh?" She inquired before taking a look. There was a white insignia on her left metal shoulder pad in the form of a dragon's head, majestic in its look. She could swear that the image winked at her for a moment there.

("That's the symbol of Bahamut.") Bax said having a look himself. The two humans understood at least what Bahamut meant. They had studied at least with the old priest (may he rest in peace) about the King of Dragons. ("Someone up there must be watching over you.")

"I don't know what that means, Bax," She told him in Japanese. "But I reckon that was a good thing." She deliberately had her tone set friendly to have him roughly get what she said. "Alright guys, let's move out! We got some friends of ours to find!" She exclaimed whilst pointing out to the horizon.

"Yes, ma'am." Boris said happily as he had someone who could give him orders again.

Bax merely smiled at this prospect and did what the Russian did. "Yes, ma'am." He managed to repeat as it was fairly easy to say.

_**And the three set off on their own adventure...**_

"Hey, I recognize you." Asuna said to Rufus. "You were there at the mountain against all those squid-heads. But you look so... I don't know how to put this."

"_If you mean that I look so old, rotten away, desecrated and mutilated, then I'll confess that I was most of those things before this nightmare world came upon us."_ Rufus replied to her. His armor was so damaged you could barely see it was plate armor anymore instead of just scrap metal put together. His own rotten corpse of a body had lost much of its old dried flesh that had held him from falling apart. Now most of him left were bones. His old crown corroded as before (from what Saber has seen of him) was filled now with cracks and it had lost its old glory. Rufus' face was much like its old self, the blue glow faint but still there. But it was the tone of which he spoke in that revealed his misery. _"Now... I'm in an even worse shape than before."_

"You looked like that all along?" The Protoss asked the old lich.

Rufus managed at least a short-lived chuckle to that. _"Magic has some uses in this universe, even if it doesn't seem real. I am a Lich, a specific magic-user back from the dead, though not entirely. I am not among the dead so I cannot die but neither am I among the living. But I wish for death to come claim me now."_

"Not at the moment, High King Rufus." Saber interrupted the deceased human. "Both of you," She addressed the other two in the room. "This is Rufus, High King of the Great Kingdom of Zuriith. He has ruled over the land for over 1800 years since his coronation after the Great War. That's at least what I know from our dimension. Here, I don't know."

"_I still am..." _Rufus told them. _"But Zuriith is a withered husk in comparison to what it was before. And I've been left in this sorry state unable to move. I wish I could scream with my own voice so I could feel better but they ripped my body apart before they were finished with me."_

"Wait a minute, who did this?" Asuna asked immediately. "Those who made all this?"

"_Yes... and that is why I summoned you. I brought you here because of the great danger here and you three are suited to find out how to stop it."_ Rufus told them. _"You fulfill a role each, even if you are simple fighters. Asuna, you negate magic and therefore you pose the big threat to them. Protoss, you are a highly skilled warrior separated from your home so you have nothing to lose in battle. And Saber was handpicked by the Imperium's Archmage to serve as its most foremost champion. The stories tell you are the greatest of them all and through the rules of how you were brought back, you fulfill the role of a leader perfectly."_

"There's just one problem with that, Rufus-san." Asuna countered him. "We are good fighters but we have always had the support of mages in a fight. Or at least the equivalent of one in our Protoss' case. Frankly, we don't have any magic of our own."

"_I thought of that myself." _The old High King said. _"I summoned the aid of some more travelers."_ As he finished the door behind them opened up to reveal two travelers, much fulfilling the role of swordsman/mage. The mage was a beautiful lady with blonde hair and blue eyes. A swirling tattoo could be seen on her forehead and you could see several beads in her hair as well. She wore very elaborate robes and wore a necklace that resembled a raccoon. Her swordsman was a giant among men, with a purple tattoo the form of a thick circle on his bald head. He wore quite heavy armor and carried a large sword on his back. He held something in his hands as well but the first three could not see it. _"I present to you Aerie of the Avariel, Archmage from her homelands and faithful servant of Baervan Wildwanderer. And this is her friend and companion, Minsc of Rashemen._

"Minsc and Boo." The man interrupted. "You forgot **Boo**!" He yelled.

"Boo?" Asuna had to ask and the big man called Minsc revealed in his hands... a hamster. A small cute little hamster in his hands, all calm and not panicked like a normal hamster. This one seemed strangely at home with the large and loud man.

"This is Boo." Minsc explained. "He is very smart. He has much knowledge. I believe with confidence that he asked High King Rufus to bring us here so we could have a grand adventure!"

"...I don't really wanna know, do I?" Asuna had to ask.

"_Ignore him, he's a bit simple but nice. And there is one more. Wade!"_ He called out and another door opened up. (How come there are so many doors?) Who came out of this one was dressed in red and black spandex with an utility belt around the abdomen. His face was covered as well with a red mask that had black wings over the eyes. He wore a pair of katana blades on the back and he was armed with guns as well. He was very well ripped too. The others didn't know who he was but the redhead girl certainly knew who he was. _"This is Wade Wilson, a mercenary with a record for doing the job."_

"Yo!" The new arrival exclaimed at seeing them. "I've been waiting for hours! Or maybe it was just fifteen minutes and it just felt like hours."

Asuna knew Deadpool when she saw him. "Oh, motherf-

**

* * *

A/N:** _And cutting it short there. How do you like me bringing in Deadpool into this? I know this might be a bad idea for some people, but I really feel like this story needed some humor. Plus, my pals on Skype liked him so much by bringing him into their stories because they felt like it, I decided to "What the heck? I could give it a go." and took him in. _**_Will not get a major part here._**_ Seriously if I gave too much focus on him, then the story would shift into Marvel! And I want to make it stay as a Negima Mega Crossover. But in any case, time for a lecture on something._

**_Character Alignment_**_: Yes, I know that I find it flawed personally. There are however good sides to it. For starters, it's an easy and fast way to describe one's personality to a fairly big degree as it tells one's ethical and moral code. There are however some cases where the system doesn't work. Negima on the whole can be described as such because they are so complex. There are only two characters I can see that fit it perfectly and that's Negi & Tsukuyomi. Boris for instance, is one whom the system doesn't work on completely. You can trust him to follow orders, yes but you can't really expect him to listen to you about anything else. On a moral side, I can't truly tell so I went with my gut on him and put him as LN. I think I narrowed him down pretty well when I did so. After all, anyone who screams loudly "ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE!" simply must be LN. For the record, I think we can put Haruna as a Chaotic Neutral girl, hence why I had her sneeze._

_I must admit something else while I am at this. I need... a betareader. Yes, I need one in order to accomplish some really good things in this fic, both linguistically and grammatically. I have gotten this far with a betareader and now that I find myself at crossroads I feel that I need a guide or a very good map to choose the right road. I hope I can find one quickly.  
_

_That's it for now. I hope you can live with this until I can finish the honeymoon fic. I can only focus on one thing at a time. And the poll for Nodoka's chosen school is still open. Feel free to make your vote._


	43. Odd Party building

**A/N:**_Hmm, I wonder if there are anyone out there save those who have Story Alert on this story that are still reading. I get so few reviews nowadays. Ah well, I don't really bother about the actual amount of reviews but I would certainly appreciate to know that you guys are out there. Hope you don't mind that, please._

_**Aboard the Great Paru-Sama**_

_Several hours before the search teams went looking for Asuna..._

"I must admit, Karl Gestr-san does know how to make good equipment." Setsuna said as she had been instructed to don one of the black power armors that had been packed along the rest of their stuff. Fate's reasoning was that they did need some field trip testing and unused armor might as well not have been brought aboard. Since they had been, they got to have some useful traits to themselves. First of all, they felt quite comfortable for a start.

"Yeah, when he's not building death-traps." Their engineer sorely scoffed his master's inventions as he had once during their (very brief) tutelage together been forced to use them and almost got himself killed by whatever it was he was forced to utilize. Fortunately, Karl had been good enough to give Andreas a heavy Power Armor very much similar to a picture he once saw only colored crimson red and decorated with weird skull/mechanical symbols and that saved his life that time. "In any case, is there something else you would like to have before you head out?"

All four girls, Konoka & Setsuna and Chizuru & Akira were to head out. The power armors had been handed out to the latter of both teams. Konoka went out in her normal adventuring outfit along with one of the two remaining Ankhs of Life around her neck. Chizuru was dressed in the trench coat that Fate had worn earlier over her explorer's outfit as well as sporting that Satchel Bag that held an infinite amount of spell scrolls that were easy to use. Akira was equipped with a normal Spatha blade from Mundus Magicus or at least the design of one. Both teams had been given a crowbar each and a first aid kit. "Hmm... actually I think we're all set and good to go." Konoka answered him.

"If you say so..." Stonegarden replied before a big clang hit the floor of the cargo hold/engineer's workshop. "Collet, are you working on the Dreadnought without me again?" He shouted in the direction where the noise came from.

"Ummm... no?" Colette answered him but her tone suggested otherwise.

"Like I'd believe that one." Andreas muttered to himself. "Okay, good luck out there. I need to look up our anti fortress weapon right now."

"Best of luck there then, Andreas-san." Setsuna told him.

"Cheer up, Spanners." Konoka said all of a sudden. "With our luck, it'll be completely fine.

"Wait, Spanners?" The engineer just had to stop and double check. "Did you just call me 'Spanners'?"

"Well, kinda... it's just that you're the crew's technician whilst we're all here. You work with tools a lot so I figure you could do with a nickname. 'Spanners' kinda fitted. Right?"

"Spanners..." Andreas repeated the word as he thought to himself. "...shorter than Andreas, at least." He finally admitted as he accepted the new nickname. "Watch yourself out there, Medic." He told the brunette who flinched at being called 'Medic'. "Oh, right. I almost forgot." He stopped himself there. "I do know that Konoka-san and Setsuna-san can get themselves out of sticky messes but since Akira-san and Chizuru-san are new at this kind of work..." He removed a simple ring from his pocket and tossed it to the latter girl he mentioned. "If you get into trouble then that ring should help you. Tell them you're engaged or something if they ask why you have it."

Chizuru found herself flushing a little but hid that well from them. "Oh, thank you."

"You're giving her a ring as a form of protection?" Setsuna asked the engineer. "You have an odd concept of doing things."

"I believe the Knight who swore to protect her Princess and ended up marrying her instead has no right to accuse others of having an odd concept." Andreas snapped back at the raven haired girl. "It's not really what you think. You'll see when you really need to use it." He told them and went around the corner.

"What was that about?" Akira asked.

"Nothing serious." Setsuna said, having humbly been put in her place by the Swede. "Averruncus," She spoke up and his monitor popped up. "We're good to go."

"_Excellent. Up on the deck and I'll see to the rest about getting you down to the surface."_ He replied in his usual tone.

_**Hours later**_

Cheers went around all over the small army camp. The mercenary band known as the _Singing Blades_ had plundered a small city nobody seemed to bother to notice on the map and helped themselves to what treasures, food and women that used to be there. The company consisted of mostly humans and Hobgoblins as they were renowned on the planet (next to the Gith, of course) as the most ferocious, if not willing, warriors. There were some Rakshasans there, accepted mostly for their small magical capacities and intriguing features to themselves. They all numbered to a total of 167 at the moment and everyone of them was a seasoned soldier.

Their captain, Graveth Anchev, was an athletically built man who through his command and large share of loot over his seven years of leading them has earned him a complete Steel plate armor that protected him against virtually any major danger on the field. He was also reputed as a good leader of men as he rewarded his men with trust and gold for them to buy their own equipment. And tonight, they had two new additions to their feast as they celebrated their plunder.

"Here, here, you two, come here." The captain said as he embraced both Raydan and Rev'keth and pulled them along with two jugs of nice wine. "It's been a few days since you paired up with us now and I figure that you two need a little something extra in order to stand out because you two are doing great for this band."

"Ain't that a bit too much generous for a pair of newcomers to your group, Captain?" The Githyanki asked of the human merc. "I mean, we've just been pulling our own weight so far in this team."

"Uh, yeah, I think it's a bit too sudden right now for a gift from the leader." Raydan added in whilst being quite nervous about this band. "Maybe you should wait a little."

"Nonsense!" Graveth exclaimed quite loudly before pulling one arm in to take a swig of wine. "You two are doing more than you think you are. Most of my boys here pull their weight, naturally but you two have pulled just about the weights that are needed for pulling off some wondrous things for us. And who can claim to work alongside a member of the famed Hunter family **and** a Sword Stalker Knight in the direct service of the Githyanki Emperor?" He boasted greatly as the alcohol was talking. "So! I thought to myself: "How do I get a good enough reward for these two?" And then we hit this town."

"Was it really necessary to attack them?" Raydan had question the captain's decision. "They had done nothing wrong."

"We are mercs, young man." Graveth argued. "We live for the thrill of battle and gold. When we have no one to pay us to fight, we make them pay. One way or the other. And it happens so that a certain guy among the higher ups has paid a nifty bounty for making sure that people don't get the wrong idea in this civil war that Samasal is supposed to be in. But as long as the gold flows in our direction and someone is paying us, I don't really mind who wins."

_I can't believe we're working with those who attacks innocent people!_ Raydan screamed in his head, the thoughts obviously directed to his companion.

"_I know, I know."_ Rev'keth told him telepathically. _"Captain Anchev is a merc so all he cares about is making money. It's quite obvious who it is who's paying them to attack human towns."_

_Ifrith._ Raydan concluded. _I always knew that Gith had a hatred for humans but to go this far..._

"_You knew no such thing." _The Gith Knight returned with a near scowl at him. _"But even if you hate the man, remember that he's the High King."_

"I left the gift I set for you back in Rev'keth's tent." Graveth said as their minds returned to the normal conversation. "I'll admit, I had to pry the men's hands off them so you boys could have them."

"So what did you get us?" Raydan asked as they approached Rev'keth's tent that was on the outskirts of their camp. It was a big round house tent fit for a squad of eight soldiers yet the Gith knight had it for himself. A home away from home, he waved it off as. Meanwhile Raydan lamented his own small tent that he had spent a full four month's hard work to get. "Must be some wicked weapons or armor you found in that town?"

"Even better." Graveth told the young man as he pulled back the tough cotton door of the tent, letting his two new associates to take a look inside. The gift was that of two beautiful women, one was black haired and kept it in a long ponytail down her back, the other had red hair and let it flow freely down to where her quite amazing hips were. They were quite exotic, much different than the other women around the camp who were forced to amuse the mercs. The black haired girl was also in some sort of skintight black armor with a sword-sheath by her side but the blade lay on the table against the wall. Next to it was a satchel bag. Both girls were chained together by the hands, feet and linked together so they couldn't escape from the pole that held the tent up. "Well, what do you think?" The captain asked the two men as the girls heard him and turned to watch the new arrivals. "They put a bit of a fight too, so you have some more fun trying to get them to do whatever you like. Polish your armor and weapons, serve you drinks or maybe even a little extra at night. They're very pretty and young of course so go ahead."

Raydan felt a bit sick at the sight of ladies being imprisoned against their will. He needed to keep up the facade but as soon as the mercs' eyes were turned the other way, he'd set them free. "Raydan..." He heard Rev'keth say quietly. "Why don't you go and have a few drinks with the other guys?"

"What?" The proclaimed monster hunter said. "Are you serious?"

"Quite." The Gith Knight told him. "You made a good effort today so you deserve a little downtime. Besides, I've been in this armor for some time now and I could do with some relaxation so this is a good time to inspect and instruct these two on what to do before I let you pick one as your personal."

"Ooh, you're gonna split." Graveth said as he heard that. "I knew I made the right choice by putting them together."

"Yes, you did." Rev'keth told him. _"Trust me on this one. I know what I'm about to do. And it's not what you'd think it is."_ He told Raydan telepathically. At the same time, he used his psychokinesis to unstrap his lamellar breastplate.

"Um... okay. If you say so, Rev, then I'll catch you later." Raydan said and went back to the camp for some drinks with the others leaving the Githyanki alone with the two girls.

* * *

This could be just about the worst situation Akira and Chizuru would find themselves in. Okay, at least in the top five for Akira but definitely the worst for the latter girl. They were stuck on an alien planet, separated from their friends and comrades, they've been captured by unknown forces, groped and nearly raped, chained up in a tent with no food for them and now a Githyanki was walking into the tent whilst taking off his armor. They saw him put it on an armor stand and putting the rest of his torso protection alongside by a table. He removed his chain-mail as he walked over to Akira's sword and Chizuru's bag and inspected them once he got the mail hauberk off himself.

"_This is bad. This is really bad." _Akira whispered to Chizuru. _"What do you think is going to happen?"_

"_I don't know._" The redheaded girl answered. _"I just hope nothing really bad will happen to us."_ She said as the Gith took out a parchment from the satchel bag and read it whilst being bare chested. He looked at them first before turning back to the table.

"...A long way from home, aren't we?" He spoke up in near perfect Japanese. "You don't look like you're from these parts."

"How do you know our language?" Akira asked shocked and immediately regretted asking that.

"Telepathy." He answered as he turned around. "Now, what are you two doing here on a foreign world, so far away from your home of Mahora?"

Now that shocked both girls and their curiosity got the better of them. "...How much do you know about us, really?"

"At first glance, you're Akira Ookouchi and Chizuru Naba from Mahora Academy, students numbers six and twenty-one respectively in class 3-A, Mahora Academy Middle School for girls. Ookouchi is the ace of the swimming team and Naba is part of the Astronomy Club. The former is also part of an adventuring band known as Ala Alba or White Wing, led by the genius boy mage Negi Springfield and the female knight Asuna Kagurazaka. The latter... I was under the impression that she lived outside the whole adventure lifestyle." Rev'keth told them on the spot, surprising them with that amount of knowledge.

"But that doesn't explain why you're here or how you got here." He continued as he picked up Akira's sword. "These items on the other hand tell a different story. This sword is that of Mundus Magicus, a fabled world that is hidden away somewhere where you live. A practical design at that to the point that I'm impressed. Ookouchi is the warrior between the two of you, which does suit her rather nicely in my opinion. But this satchel bag on the other hand... I've seen it before. And that alone answers why you're here." He said and then looked at the two chained up girls with a serious expression.

_**Over at Asuna's situation**_

"Out of all the deranged mercs, it had to be **you**. What are you doing here to begin with?" Asuna demanded to know of their last party member known as Deadpool as they were gathered in the old ruined library.

"Well, I think I'm supposed to say I got pulled into this mess by High King Rufus over there to help you guys out," Deadpool answered the redhead. "But personally, I think I'm here because the author is trying to branch out. Gotta give the readers what they like." He said cheerfully.

"What is he talking about?" Saber asked out loud.

"You're insane." Asuna accused the merc.

"I know!" Deadpool answered but he didn't seem very concentrated on them and more on himself. "The justification for me actually **being** here is quite thin, too. There's no scene that shows how I got here, there doesn't seem to be any money for me to use afterward and I don't even have my old buddies with me in this crapsack world! Well, that's all just philosophical bullcrap anyhow so I really don't care cuz- Hey, pretty ladies!" He exclaimed upon seeing the chicks in the team.

"You touch me and I'll rip your balls off." Asuna threatened him. Minsc stepped in front of Aerie to protect his witch.

"As I was saying..." Deadpool retaliated as he "seemed" to back off from them.

"_This is starting to become weird..."_ Rufus commented on the situation.

"Wait – back up." Asuna told the merc. "You said 'author' earlier. What do you mean by that?"

"What author is he talking about?" The Protoss inquired as well.

"You guys don't know?" The Merc With A Mouth asked them and upon seeing their blank faces that they didn't... "Oh, right. Forgot that for a moment. Well let me put it this way... WE'RE IN A FANFICTION STORY, PEOPLE!" He yelled at them first. "We're just people trapped in a literal world written by an unrecognized author who goes by a penname and he's the one responsible for us being here in the first place!"

Everybody all stared at him for a long time, the silence so thick you could hear water dripping in somewhere in the library. "...If I wasn't married to **Ayaka** of all the people I know, I'd discard that out of hand." Asuna finally spoke up.

"You have a spouse?" Aerie asked of the redhead.

"Yeah but it's not really what you think. We don't like each other, we fight each other over different things, she calls me a brutal monkey at worst and a simple commoner at best. In return, I chew her out on her shotacon ways and for being such an overly rich broad who takes things her way one time too many." Asuna told them. "I don't even have an attraction to her and vice versa."

"So. You willing to accept this whole Fanfiction story idea then, Asuna?" Deadpool asked the girl.

"Actually, that story does explain a few things. Rachel-chan being such a lecherous... thing, Oyaji existing in the first place and frankly why me, Saber-san and... sorry, I didn't catch your name before," She told the Protoss with an apologizing look. "survived the whole falling-down-into-boiling-lake-of-lava experience. And what's with me and Ayaka and Konoka and Setsuna-san back home getting hitched? Does this "author" have a Yuri fetish or something?"

#_ This is a ring tone ~ _# Deadpool's own voice called out from somewhere and the merc picked out a cell phone. # _So pick up the phone ~ _# "Excuse me." He said briefly polite before answering. "Yeah?" The others there could hear a voice talking to the merc briefly before he was hung up. "That was the author himself. He's denying having a Fetish."

"...It is surely the one who has taught Boo." Minsc exclaimed with happiness. "Boo would surely recognize that voice anywhere."

"Squeak." Boo cut him short there.

"I think Boo is disagreeing with you on that, Minsc." Aerie told her knight.

Asuna groaned heavily at this conversation. "Anyway, could you tell us the whole story of what happened here so we can get the hell out of this place?" She asked of the High King. "I for one am not fond of crossing dimensions."

"Yeah and I wanna go to where the Protoss guy originates. This one sucks." Deadpool added to their request much to the mentioned alien's chagrin.

"_Too late." _Rufus said with warning in his tone. _"It's already found us."_

"What has-" _**THUMP!**_ "Never mind." Quite literally through the wall came out a hideous gargantuan creature. Its body structure reminded Saber and Asuna (to some extent) of the Tyranids back at Mt. Ilsensine. But this was **huge**. Massive blades made of bone protruded from its long arms going down to the floor even when it had raised its arms high. Bone plates the size of walls covered its torso and would no doubt be thicker than a concrete elephant. Its own head featured as if it was in charge of a large swarm and the thing gave off a ferocious roar.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!" Asuna exclaimed seeing the thing in shock.

"_No time to explain. Run."_ Rufus told them.

"Squeak!"

"We are in great trouble here. Boo says that we listen to the lich!" Minsc screamed as the huge monster took a step forward to them.

"All in favor?" Aerie asked of them.

"AYE!" They all yelled back and the whole group of living people ran away through a different door. They had to drag Deadpool on the way.

_**Over to another couple**_

"You really didn't mean any harm by leaving us, did you, Set-chan?" Konoka asked her knight as they walked through the oddly quiet forest whilst somewhere there was the sound of battle not far. Castle siege by the sounds of it, by the way.

"Truly." Setsuna answered her. "I thought that I was doing it for the sake of everyone if I left. Rachel-san said that she would find a way to get me here but only if I accepted her training at shapeshifting. She... claimed that it would aid me greatly."

"Hnnnn..." Konoka eyed her spouse suspiciously from the side and a blank expression that sent more chills down Setsuna's spine than the most dangerous foe she could ever imagine facing. The raven haired girl could not help but sweat at an alarming rate as she awaited her wife's reply. "...Alright. I forgive you."

"YES!" Setsuna exclaimed happily before freezing, realizing that she had shouted that word and there had to be a catch. "I spoke too soon, didn't I?"

"Yes." Konoka told her with a vicious grin. "There's a condition."

"That's it. Everything good that'll happen in my life is going to have something bad as its prize tag." Setsuna told herself before excusing herself to Konoka.

"I wouldn't really call this condition bad, Set-chan." The brunette explained. "But you might at first. You see, since we're married and all..."

"Uh oh." Setsuna said immediately.

"And since Negi-kun is on his honeymoon whilst we're away," The healer continued.

"Oh, crap."

"The condition on forgiving you leaving is that you and I go on **our** honeymoon when we get back to Earth." She finished with a big smile.

Setsuna on the other hand turned to figurative stone and cracked up by the shock. Her with Konoka-ojou-sama going on a honeymoon? _Where? Wait, what? Why be happy about it? Should I be glad? Should I be worried to death? What are the objections to this? I don't think I could handle the responsibility. What responsibility? It's not like I can get her knocked up! ...Can I?_

"What's wrong, Set-chan?" The healer asked innocently. Setsuna decided to say the first thing regarding others' opinion on the matter to her.

"Kono-chan, your grandfather would kill me if he ever found out."

"Aw, don't be silly, Set-chan." Konoka replied at first. "Oji-chan only wants what is satisfying me."

"He is also trying to ensure a good successor, through my perspective." Setsuna answered. "He wants to make sure that you are in very good hands and capable of still producing heirs for the continuation of the Kantou region."

"The continuation... Well, I already am in very good hands, Set-chan. Yours. But if it's kids he wants then I can just go ask Negi-kun."

"And he would surely deny it the first few times..." Setsuna muttered. "Are you even sure that you're sure of that?"

"I am." The brunette answered immediately. "I have nothing against Negi-kun. If becoming a Magistra Magi like Negi-kun means staying with Negi-kun, then I would do it. I'm sure many would choose to go with him. Wouldn't you?"

Setsuna stopped for a moment again to consider her options. Konoka's way of life if it came to it made sense as she had told her on occasion that she'd grab Negi over any other man that came her way. The Samurai could not help but admit that there was something about the young man that attracted them to his side in both peace and battle. As for love... perhaps there was something for him inside her but such feelings would have to wait for now. But still... "Yes. Yes I would." Setsuna answered the brunette.

The sound of battle was not far off for them. Despite the big danger, they did need to look for Asuna. Even the redhead would avoid a conflict of this size but she could equally end it with a swing of her sword. Perhaps someone there had seen or heard of her. The first thing they saw when they approached were tents of canvas that stood mostly empty save for one guard in studded leather armor along with a big shield and a long spear.

In the distance, a castle was under an attack. The guard was certainly part of the attacking army yet the duo had to try at least. At least they noted the flag of the attacking army. The classic rectangular design had a black background upon which featured a great cross like blade sewn out of silver going up with the pommel directed upwards. Flanked by two smaller leaning blades, these in crimson red, and two more stripes going alongside, the blade sported two strange markings by the side of the pommel. They just had to ask the guard out of curiosity. He said that the markings were the letters K and A, which stood for "Kalamaran Army". But he directed them further into the siege army for the leader if they needed to see him.

"Er, maybe we should wait here, instead." Setsuna suggested for them instead whilst looking for something that they could sit on. "If the army commander is out there then it'd be too dangerous to go there since they're being shot by arrows."

"Set-chan, I understand you're concerned for me, but I can handle myself from arrows and such. I've been practicing really hard with my shield." Konoka tell her as she viewed the field outside the castle, where field constructed huts were filled with men too injured to continue the fight and awaiting nightfall so they could be brought to safety by their tents. "Besides, you can see those injured people. It is my duty as a healer to get over there and help them."

"It is also my duty to ensure that you stay safe, Kono-chan." Setsuna countered her, not liking it one bit. "And we are on a mission to find Asuna-san. I'm sorry but we do not have time to get over there."

"Physician!" Someone called out over the sounds of battle, drawing both their attention to a man in mail armor holding another one in mail armor... with an arrow through his throat. "Physician!" He called again. There was only one logical reason. The injured man was an officer... and he was still alive.

Konoka didn't bother to answer her knight, only turned toward the field and ran as fast as she could to help. "Kono-chan. Kono-chan!" Setsuna cried out for her, but as the brunette wouldn't listen, she decided to follow instead.

The hail of arrows felt frightening as either of them could be hit at any time, yet Konoka kept running towards her goal. Even if Setsuna had a point in that there was no time, she couldn't leave a severely injured man out there dying. Setsuna ran directly behind her, catching up soon enough to the healer's side. The raven haired girl kept an eye on the castle ramparts, watching for any archers aiming at them. She spotted a Githyanki aiming at them first, but he retracted his arrow from them and taking aim somewhere else.

"Physician!" The cry came again and louder as they came closer to where they were going and seconds later, the two girls were at their side, seeing the injured with the arrow through his throat. "You know what you're doing?" The crier asked them.

"We wouldn't be here otherwise." Setsuna answered him whilst Konoka took out her wand. In comparison to some wounds she's treated before, this was now mere child's play. She did however hesitate.

"I need someone to pull out the arrow." The brunette said and whilst the injured man was trying to move, she stopped him. "Don't move, don't try to speak. Just lay down and be calm. We're trying to help here." Her patient nodded shortly and lay there as his second man took hold of the arrow and started to pull. But he was stopped there by his commanding officer, who didn't like that. "How do one get an arrow head out?" Konoka had to ask as this was the first time (admittedly) she had to deal with an arrow injury.

"I got this one." Setsuna said and produced a knife from her artifact with Negi. Heating it up with her Chi, she slowly began to cut the area where the arrow had struck. Konoka's patient was practically squirming in pain as his legs showed it but he kept his cool and endured it properly. The raven haired girl then took hold and pulled it out from him, making him cover the cauterized wound before Konoka came over it instead.

She spoke the words and in a small flash, the wound itself was gone along with any burn degrees caused by Setsuna's knife and cutting. Her patient was also breathing normally whilst laying there. "Thank you." He said softly to them before turning to them. "Lakaran." He turned to his second in command by his side. "How are the gates hold-" A strong sound like wood creaking violently and roars of angry soldiers filled the air. "Never mind. Take prisoners. Don't kill anyone who surrenders. And take what you can of value from the place. I'm heading back to the tents."

"Yes, sir." Lakaran responded and rushed off to the breach. The officer rose up, grabbed a large shield and began to rush back through the ranks of the soldiers he commanded toward the tents. Konoka and Setsuna followed suit.

* * *

"I must say, I owe you two ladies my life." The commanding leader of the aggressive army said as he offered them some water in silver goblets.

"Ah, no. We only did our duty to help those in need. We just didn't know who you were, your Highness." Konoka spoke humbly whilst Setsuna stood guard at her side for this was clearly a dangerous man they were dealing with.

Balan Kabori, second prince of the proud human kingdom Kalamar, was described by many nobles who met him as dangerous. Not dangerous in how he fought or such (in fact, he was quite average by noble standards with a blade), but dangerous in how he plotted within the system of Kalamaran nobility. He had plans on how to make the country in his own way better yet the methods he intended to use were considered dangerous by the nobility because they would feel threatened by it. He had no wife as his father had deemed it unnecessary because the future of the royal family was already secured with Balan's own nephew. Balan did however, respect the word of his father and wasn't going to make any moves on the boy. He was simply the spare. As royalty bred within the nobility of the land, he still sported the flaming red hair of the ancestors and the starlit blue eyes. His face was rugged and clean, featuring the good old fashioned goatee with beads in it. "That is understandable since I wore the armor of our middle class soldiers, lady. Wouldn't be easy to spot me then. But what probably gave my identity away... was my sword." He put a hand on his practically yet beautifully made sword which had a heavy pommel, allowing him to be tremendously effective with it. "Infantry in our armies usually carry axes or spears." He explained. "The fact that I wore a sword hinted that I was someone special."

"If you are laying siege to a castle, Sir," Setsuna spoke up all of a sudden whilst his men ransacked the castle. "Then why would you attack it up front when you could have starved them out?"

"That is a fair question and I'll tell you why. That castle managed to send for aid shortly before my men arrived. The original idea was to starve them out, but my troops cannot fully withstand being squeezed between two armies and get out of the situation quite battle-ready. And I would lose face if I pulled back. So I had to rush the Githyanki, making sure that when the reinforcements come, they'll face either an empty castle, or me filled with my men in it. I'd go for the former, since then they'll be the ones laying siege to us and starving us out." Balan explained to them calmly.

"I see. So you had no choice then." The raven warrior replied.

"Exactly." The prince told her. "Now, is there something I can do for you in return?" He asked them gently. Konoka decided to recant their mission to him, hoping that he would give them aid in finding their friend. He would stop them at times to ask what she looked like and what kind of personality she had. On one time, Setsuna questioned if he was gonna try wooing the girl if he found her first. He assured her "certainly not" after hearing what they've told him. He noticed another thing. "Ah, I see that you are already married yourself, lady Konoka." He said, referring to her ring.

"Oh, this?" Konoka said and nervously thought something up but first she'd have to ask him. "It is not a bother to you, is it?" Being with a grown man in power and a strong army at his call led to some... disturbing scenarios.

"You are bound in sacred matrimony, come what may and I shall not barge in on it." Balan answered. "One must be faithful to one's spouse and expect the same in return. Besides, it'd be quite a bother, really."

"...What would be a bother, Sir?" Setsuna asked of him.

"Well, to try and locate the husband and kill him, of course." He answered bluntly before taking his goblet with wine to his lips. He noticed that the girls were staring at him in disbelief. "That was a joke." He told them when he finished. "I believe the wine is starting to get to me."

"You... make very poor jokes, Sir." Setsuna said softly to him.

"Yes, I know. I've been working on that." Balan said. "Sadly though, I cannot say I have seen her. I can however, spare a company of mounted men to look for her, given the proper sketching of her." He said as Lakaran walked into his tent. "Yes?"

"The castle has fallen, your Highness. We are taking the spoils of it back to Bet Kalamar as we speak, loading it on wagons." The soldier or knight reported.

"Any survivors?" Balan asked as he turned attention.

"Some. A few soldiers of the castle, the rest are women and children." Lakaran reported. "What should be done with them?"

"Lock the children up in the great hall of the castle first, then the women in the dungeon. The enemy reinforcements will be here in two days. They can take care of them once they get here. Tie the soldiers up in the courtyard and leave them there without weapons." Balan instructed him.

"Due respect, your Highness but such treatment of the Gith aren't really tolerated well among the men." Lakaran told his prince.

"Then remind them that I'm the one in command of them and that they are to leave them alive instead of just killing them outright. I do not want to appear as a monster." Balan hissed angrily at the man, who walked away frightened. He turned back to the girls. "Kalamar has two sides of its appearance. First as the greatest human kingdom in Samasal, the other as a specieistic country with no regard for women or children of the other races. I intend to make sure that the former is presented first and foremost."

"I see." Konoka replied softly. "Well, if you'll excuse us, Prince Balan, we must be going. We have a friend to find." She rose yet Balan halted her.

"Uh, would it be too much though to ask of you a request? At least, hear me out." He asked them. Since they stared at him, he continued. "A certain lord of Kalamar hasn't shown up for campaigns for some time now and he hasn't sent any troops nor paid scutage. I ask you to go to him and remind him that loyalty does mean paying your share for the defense of the realm."

"What would the benefits be for us?"

"Well, I can assure that you'll be given one sixth of the total amount of money that'll be sent to us. I can arrange for a chariot for you to use if you need it." Balan replied to them.

"If I may," Setsuna said whilst pulling Konoka away from the seat. "Is this a request or an order you're giving us?"

"It is a request." Balan answered. "You have full rights to say no. But taking this up would certainly help you with travel expenses, would it not?"

Konoka looked at Setsuna and she looked back. Eventually, they had to give in to that logic. "We accept and appreciate the chariot. All we need is a map."

"Excellent. I'll have that provided right away." He said and headed straight for the tent exit. "Pateris! Where the blazes are you!" They could hear him yell.

"He seems fairly decent enough." Konoka said.

"That's what we thought about Gödel as well. He turned out rather awful." Setsuna countered while they were alone in the tent until he came back to tell them of the chariot being ready.

_**Back to Asuna**_

"Any idea what that was?" Asuna asked out to the group once they were out of range from the beast they had escaped from, leaving Rufus behind. They didn't know where to go, as the building was ruined and ash, bone and cinder was everywhere, covering any marking for the Gith warrior to use.

"That was a Tyranid." Saber spoke up after catching her breath. "An alien species from another dimension. It devours everything in its path that is organic. What we escaped from is called a Hive Tyrant. Those are the worst of them all. They are in command of a horde of beasts as well and are powerful in psionic powers. Our Imperium stay away from those things as often as we'd like."

"...Right." Asuna said. "So we could be staring at a minor horde of those things at any moment?"

"Maybe. But we have one advantage to use." Saber continued. "The Tyrant is a synapse link. Each Tyranid creature is part of a larger Hive Mind. Some of the greater beasts control the smaller ones."

"So that means, that if we kill the Tyrant, then the smaller ones would go out of control and attack each other?" Aerie inquired with Minsc by her side.

"Yes. Problem is, Tyranids exist in trillions and for every synapse link we take out, at least a million more will take its place." Saber told them.

"It's a start." Asuna said taking out her sword and checking the shotgun she took with her. "We kill that thing, then we'll be left alone most of the time until we need to kill again. ...where's Deadpool?"

"Chimichanga!" The merc's voice was heard throughout the building and immediately gunshots were heard. It was obvious.

"Alright, who dropped him on the way out?"

"I did by accident." The Protoss answered. "I thought that he would follow us out of there too. I guess I was being too optimistic as you humans say it."

"Damnit. Well, at least he's buying us time." Asuna continued. "I think that I got something. Minsc-san, may I borrow Boo-kun for a small moment?"

"Why would you want to borrow Boo?" The big fighter asked of her but Boo gave off a squeak and scurried off into Asuna's hand. "Okay, Boo wins."

"Right. Here's how it goes..."

* * *

"Okay... you might be fourteen feet tall, you might be armor-plated to the bone and you might have sliced off my limbs just now with your giant scythe like bone blades..." Deadpool told the great Tyranid Tyrant as it loomed over him. "But I shall never surrender! I am human! It is the nature of humans to be the good guys and they always triumph in the end!" The big Tyrant responded by raising its big scythe over his head as he lay there on the ground. "Then again, that's because we tend to work as a team..."

An unseen blast all of a sudden knocked the great alien back. The merc with a mouth twisted his head about to see Saber flying at high speed towards the things, brandishing her unarmed skills instead of her designated silver blade. First came a high velocity-boosted fist right onto the torso of the beast, before a spinning roundhouse kick to its jugular actually lifted the Tyrant up into the air, although for a few seconds only.

As the Hive Tyrant landed again on its two feet, the Protoss came from the side, sliding in with apparent ease despite his heavy armor and grabbed on to the thing's right leg with both hands. And **pulled with all his might**_._ Then came Aerie, flying right toward the beast's head bracing two arms thick from **solid rock**, before slamming both arms on the Tyrant's temple (of sorts). This disturbed the monster's center of gravity somewhat severely and the thing fell down back first on the floor.

"Now, Minsc!" Asuna could be heard and then the two armored fighters appeared from Deadpool's flanks and both of them sported greatswords. Asuna with her Hama no Tsurugi and Minsc with a greatsword that for some bizarre reason was named... Larry. The redhead of the two performed instant movement to the other side of the Tyrant and spun around with her blade. Minsc swung his sword at the same time roughly...

And both cut off the scythe blades of the Tyrant, making it shriek in pain at the damage. "HIT IT!" Asuna roared as she brought her hands together. The Avari elf spoke in a language that featured hard consonants and hissing noises and her magic exploded into life as all five of them began bombarding the Tyrant with attacks whilst the beast tried to rise up. The keyword is "tried", as Saber held the thing down with her powerful psychokinesis and the Protoss was hacking its legs apart with his energy blades. Minsc hacked, slashed and stabbed at the thing wherever he could and it seemed to have great effect. His witch was pelting silver streaks of magic at the fiend whilst Asuna pulled out a round metal ball with a pin of sorts (From Minsc & Aerie's perspective). The redhead girl made a big hole on the side of the Hive Tyrant, pulled out the pin of the metal ball and jammed it in there. "Get back! It's gonna blow!" She yelled and upon command as if they were already a well oiled machine, they did.

_And the Hive Tyrant inflated for an instant before slumping down on the floor, dead._

"Whooo! We got it!" Asuna cheered in happiness and general congratulations and petting of the hamster went around as they coddled together.

"DUDES! We were awesome!" Deadpool jumped up out of the blue next to them, all limbs back in place and fully clad.

""We?"" Asuna repeated that word. "You did nothing to contribute to this." She accused the merc.

"Ah-ha!" Deadpool countered her. "I did contribute! I held that monstrosity at bay long enough for you guys to come up with a brilliant strategy on how to kill it! I would have added my own flair to the counterattack but someone had to hold the line."

"Well you behaved in your own uncaring, trigger-happy, "business" behavior as you let the Tyrant cut off your arm and then then you took the opportunity to pick it up and try to bash out its knee with it, to no avail. Then you kept firing at it with your guns and that only made it mad. After that you decided to try a headbutt."

"How'd you know that?" Deadpool asked the redhead girl and heard Saber clear her throat.

"Clairvoyance. I kept an eye on your fight against it to see how well you fared. Apart from your regenerative ability, I can't really say I was impressed." The knight spoke softly.

"Huh. Here I am being talked down by an OC. I'm gonna file a complaint at the author for this."

"_I on the other hand, was very impressed by what you have pulled off as a team."_ Rufus spoke up after letting them have their talk. _"I cannot guide you back home, I'm afraid. You'll need to do that on your own."_

Asuna groans. "Figures."

"_You'll find what you're looking for in the wasteland that is now Samasal. Go out there and find the truth of this world."_

"...I guess we have to work together, then." Saber spoke up. "We'll journey together and see what we can do to help this world in whatever way we can. Sound good to you?"

"Indeed." Aerie spoke first.

"Where Aerie goes, Minsc follows." The elf's protector said afterward.

"Squeak." Boo added.

"Oh, alright." Asuna said. "Seeing as we're stuck here anyway."

"That's the spirit!" Deadpool yelled, waving his arms around. "If we just pull it together and work as a team, we can-" _**WHAM!**_ He had been knocked by an elbow strike from Asuna who headed for the door of the place. The others followed suit, leaving the merc behind. Then it hit the redhead.

"You're coming too, aren't you?" She asked him.

"Yep."

A beat of silence as Asuna cared to take a look at Saber and vice versa with the Gith woman. Then she turned back to Deadpool. "One condition."

"No nudity. Got it." The merc said as he rose up rapidly like earlier.

Another beat. "...Two conditions." Asuna changed it. "Saber-san and I are in charge of this team. That means you'll do as we tell you to do. Got that?"

"No problem." He answered her.

_**Now what is Rev doing to them?**_

Raydan did spend time drinking alongside the other guys in the camp and turned down any offers from them 'having fun' with the women they had taken. Even though he was homeless and in need of a proper place to live, he found this company awful. They were working for Ifrith as much as he could tell and since the blasted Githyanki High King was in charge, he couldn't stand to be with these guys. As soon as that man was deposed, he would help introduce liberty by law to the realms. If only they could find Nodoka again. She'd listen to him about it.

Proud though over his birthright, he had seen the people he once led in a new light. Well, commoners at least. Few on the outside knew that he was a blue blood. But they didn't know what country he was from. If they knew that...

"Hey, kid." Gareth sat down next to him, still being sober-ish and not having those wine jugs around his hands anymore. "Listen. I can tell that you do not like my band simply by looking at you. Well let me tell you something else. I do my best to ensure that these goons do not attack every settlement we come across. These wackos are some of the worst guys in personality you'll ever see around these parts and just want to kill people, loot them and burn down their homes and then go looking for the next town. I ensure that the people stay safe from them and make sure that my men get the fights they want. If I have to sacrifice my own "innocence" in order to make sure that guys like you stay the way you are, then fine."

Raydan rose up and turned away from the camp. "You do know that Rev and I are just exploiting you here, right? As soon as we find what we want, we're outta here."

"That's fine by my scrolls. It's just that you two haven't told us what you're after and until then, you stick with me." Gareth countered to him. "Now, let's go have a look how your friend is handling those girls. He should've whipped them into shape by now." The merc leader said and pulled a reluctant young man with him to the Gith Knight's tent. "Hey, Rev'keth! I trust you are finished with the girls?" He opened the tent slightly.

He received a fist right in the face that sent him flying backward.

"What the?" Raydan exclaimed, seeing the Githyanki come out with the two girls coming by his flanks.

"What was that for, you moron!" Gareth demanded to know of the move and drew his sword.

"You had no idea who these ladies were, you complete imbecile?" Rev'keth asked in return as some of the mercenaries came to see what the commotion was about.

"Complete imb- Do you know who I am?" Anchev exploded in rage at the Gith.

"Do you know who this is!" The Knight didn't flinch and presented the redhead girl. "This is the Witch of Man!"

"Eh?" Gareth froze and so did his men.

"Haah?" Raydan didn't recall Nodoka being that voluptuous or having that much hair and colored red.

"The Witch?" The mercenary captain repeated. "**The** Witch of Man? That her?"

"Yes." Rev'keth answered him. "I've seen her before in the main capital of Samasaliasal. She's the real deal and you and your band of..." he struggled to find the words. "neurotic, kill-crazy, booze-swigging thugs treated her almost like a cheap whore and presented her as a slave! Any idea what ramifications this could have had?" The words began to have an effect on the captain and the humans among the mercenaries.

"That's right." The Witch spoke up in an angry tone. "And I have never bore witness to such a harsh treatment to your own kind." She scolded the human troops. "We are supposed to be united as a single unit against the High King, and here I find you swigging your weapons about butchering children in their beds!"

"This will not stand." The black haired woman in armor spoke softly, sending massive waves of guilt among the soldiers. In response they went down on their knees and begged forgiveness.

"Wait, wait- You can't be serious!" Gareth shouted at the men. "You can't really think that-" He struggled to find the words but seeing the shame emitting stares of the two women made him change his mind. "Er... um... Boys, we're holding debate! Back to the fire with the lot of you!" He cried out and they complied to that at least. Debate was one of the ways Gareth held command. It allowed the men who had ideas on what to do next to speak up about it. In turn they could also counter the others' suggestions, naming the risks of that course and suggesting a strategy that called for less blood among them. When Gareth himself had decided on something his men suggested, they would do that as he was one who knew what he was doing.

"Raydan." Rev'keth said to the young noble and motioned for all four of them to enter his own tent.

* * *

"What! They're associates of Averruncus!" The monster hunter exclaimed in shock as their host poured him some wine and some for himself as well. The girls had rejected the offer.

"Pretty much." Rev'keth answered as he handed him the small bowl. "But I could tell that you are not one to harm ladies, either and they were somewhat at our mercy, so I struck a deal with them."

"Which generally involved them posing around as the Witch of Man and her companion." Raydan pointed out.

"Yes," the Gith said. "We exchanged what information we could and decided that this be the best route in which they got out of servitude from us **and** escape getting raped by the thugs outside. In return, they're stuck with us until we find the real Witch."

"It wasn't really like we had a choice to start with." Chizuru, the redhead said. "He had us pinned without a bargaining chip on our side to use and we'd like to keep our maidenhoods until we get married."

"You see my point, Raydan?" The Gith asked the young man. "We may be enemies but the Weave that the gods make intertwine in more ways than one."

"Oh, be quiet. Gods are just someone's excuse to keep us in line." Raydan waved it off. "Unless I actually see one, I'm not gonna be much of a believer."

"You oughta be glad that we are not outdoors. Others who have said so have found themselves in an unfortunate accident shortly afterward. Ninety-nine percent of the time." Rev'keth chuckled out of himself for once. "Nevertheless, fate has smiled on us at last and it'd be very rude to turn our backs on her, now wouldn't it?"

Raydan let out a big sigh before taking his wine in one big gulp. "...Alright, alright. Until we find the others, then. This best be worth it."

"It will." Rev said before drinking up his bowl. "Trust me.

_**On Earth...**_

"It feels odd without Chachamaru, having to do everything yourself." Eva complained slightly as she was making the tea for the command group at the Nodate garden. She herself being in a beautiful black silk kimono with yellow flower embroideries all over it. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't complain, I have made tea before."

"This is something you never quit liking, is it?" Konoemon said as he sat next to her. In fact, they had guests from nearly all over the planet, all magi and in charge of the regions they inhabited. Well to be more precise the guests were districts chiefs of magi from various parts of the world, been sent there so they could spread the word further to among the other regions where theirs were.

"Now then, perhaps we should start." The Commander of it all spoke up. Aristodemus has had a busy time with teaching the kids at Mahora useful tips. He was flanked by Misa and Madoka, the two cheerleaders in kimonos themselves but not sitting down. They had to show that they were on duty in front of the guests. "A few days ago, we managed to confirm the coming arrival of this incoming invasion force from outer space. Surely the events at Marbella ought to be enough evidence of this."

"We originally believed that you had gone mad from your time, Commander." The first one, from India, spoke up. "We have traced the evidence ourselves and found no matching description of these... Githyanki as you call them."

Aris merely took this in and decided to counter. "Only if you look at it with a sloppy eye, Sir. We looked through it ourselves since we produced it, obviously and there are virtually tons of evidence that point to this conclusion."

"Ridiculous." The American said. "There is no invasion coming. This is obviously just some attempt by some terrorist organization out there trying to gain some attention to themselves."

_How obvious of the Americans._ "And I suppose that is your professional opinion, Mr Byers... or is it what your superiors over at Pentagon told you to say?"

"It is very rude to speak of ill matter to the host, Mr Byers." The German diplomat said, scolding the American. "But likewise, how can this be surely proof that there is an alien invasion?"

"...Simple." Aristodemus spoke quietly whilst the others watched him. "What terrorist organization would have access to automatons?" He asked them and produced a picture sent by someone from Marbella. "This "flashlight head" robot is of a design that doesn't originate anywhere on either Earth or Mars. Its weaponry is different as well. It produces small light streaks that fly through the air and cause damage, much similar to fictional laser weapons. Earth's technology cannot make laser weapons like this anywhere and Mars simply does not do that.

"With that in mind, can we still believe that this," He produced another picture, this one of a massive robot. "is of human design? The efficiency of it, the movement and the performance is off any scale that humans have manufactured. And at the same time, it's too technological to be from Mars. I reckon that this cannot be from our hands."

"And you are in the firm belief that aliens exist." The American said. "What about... actual sightings? Photographs of these creatures if they even exist?"

"Perhaps what I hold here," a new voice interfered, turning their attention to a newcomer in an azure blue colored kimono and a violet rose pattern across it. She held up a folder for them to see. "should shed some extra light on what we say."

She handed over the folder to Mr Byers first and he opened it to find several photographs of armor-plated soldiers with unusual firearms and close up images of the Githyanki, in particular one with a silver eye-patch.

"Take a seat, will you please?" Eva told the newcomer and she complied, taking her seat in front of the guarding Madoka who found her oddly like someone she's seen before. "Tea?"

"Thank you." She accepted the bowl and took a sip of it.

"Who are you to hold this information?" Byers asked first after he had looked through it first and then handed it to the German.

"Kosmo Entelecheia organization from Mars is my division. I am Sextum, Averruncus of the Water." She answered him and the two cheerleaders flinched. "Something the matter?" She asked them.

"No, there is nothing wrong..." Madoka answered her first.

"It's just... your name is..." Misa continued but stopped there.

"It's Latin, Misa." Aris told her. "It means the Sixth. Where have you been, Averruncus?" He asked her.

"In recuperation." Sextum answered him. "For the full answer, I was part of the mage group that first encountered the Githyanki and their auxiliary forces on large scale battle. I was rendered incapacitated during the battle against their main mage. I have only recently regained capacity to move and act again."

"You were incapacitated?" Aris asked her.

"Yes. The experience was rather... awful if you have to know." Sextum told him. "Nevertheless, I'm ready to assume temporary command of KE until Dynamis and my brother Tertium return from their expedition."

"Expedition?"

"That is not necessary right now." Aris cut off the questions. "Welcome aboard, Averruncus. But I have to ask... since you are the Sixth, what happened to the Fourth and the Fifth?"

"Still in recuperation." Sextum answered. "They took the most severe damage and it was difficult to retrieve them fully. I expect them to make their full recovery within the year."

"Excellent. The more magi we gain on our side, the better." Aris said. "Gentlemen, perhaps we should pause for today and continue this discussion at another date. Averruncus and I need to speak in private regarding this new information."

**

* * *

**

**A/N:** _And there is Sextum, making her debut in this story. From what I've seen of her (and I'm including raws), she's quite the cold-hearted bitch. What happened will be revealed much later on. Long-term, remember? Anyhow, here are some notes worth mentioning:_

_- For those who have seen the blades of Mundus Magicus, I point particularly to the one that goes narrow down the middle and then grows a big edge at the top, that is the Spatha in my opinion. The design seems simple and effective enough.  
_

_- Someone said that I get really turned on by 40K. Let me tell you something, mister. I like 40K but not at that level. There are three things that I'm a junkie of: High Fantasy, Strategy games and Githyanki. I really like Gith a lot for a few reasons. 40K is not really at that point where I drool all over it. I don't drool over the other stuff either but that's not the point. 40K is an interesting universe which twists the whole geek world around because **it is not a happy place**. The factions, the technology, the horrible stuff that'll give you nightmares for weeks, that is what turns me on. I do not play 40K, no matter how interesting it is for some. And you can forget about me actually writing something for that section as well. I confess in that what I would write would be considered amateurish in their eyes. Anyhow, the Tyranids being mind-controlled by the antagonist that Kyu made for me builds up just how dangerous that guy is. That is the main thing to focus on._

_- Deadpool is already complaining at me for not putting in his yellow little boxes. This being literacy, I don't blame him but I can't really give him yellow little boxes or anything yellow for that matter. _

_- For those hoping that I'll make KonoSetsu stuff: There could be if I find the enthusiasm for it. I'm sorry but I can't buy the full acceptance of them being a pair in the manga. I am however supporting it because it's official to some extent. Just use your imagination for now or better still: Write that lemon piece yourselves if you can get the images. I cannot imagine it right now._

_- Originally, in Europe, the sword was so expensive that only nobility or the very rich used them. Usually they're the same. Ordinary soldiers wielded bows, axes, spears and such, simple weapons that were relatively easy to manufacture and maintain in the latter's case. The sword here was actually the key to Balan above to be spotted. Small mistake on his part, really._

_- Konoka and Setsuna not getting hit by arrows is for one simple reason: They were women. In the old days, you didn't think that women had a place on the battlefield since they weren't considered an actual threat because all the wars were fought by men in heavy armor. That's why the archer didn't shoot them. It's like with medics; you didn't attack civilians or medics lest you risked getting messed up badly by the enemy or your own mates in some cases. You best stick to the rules of combat or else..._

_- Scutage was a special tax for knights during the Middle Ages. Feudalism meant that you were the vassal of the king and therefore during times of war, had to show up himself along with a good number of soldiers. If you couldn't show up either yourself or send soldiers, then you had to pay absence-fine, therefore scutage. It was obligatory to show up when the king demanded it for war. The longer you were away, the bigger the tax was and you had to constantly pay it if you weren't going to come to the king's aid._

_Well, call this "Boring you with non important stuff" if you like, but at least the Negima volumes explain a lot of things. I'd thought I would do the same to you. Ci-_

Vast: You know, I don't really like this.

Kurush: Why are you saying that all of a sudden?

Vast: It's Raydan. You didn't do him right. He's supposed to be snarky.

Kurush: Well, I couldn't really find a proper moment for him to be snarky. Everyone gets that once in a while.

Vast: Perhaps, or you're just too lazy to stick to the proper stuff...

Kurush: What'd you say?

Vast: You heard. I said you were a bit lazy making this chapter.

Kurush: Aren't we a bit hypocritical here? How about you just copy-pasting most of your own work, huh, pal?

Vast: I make good stuff.

Kurush: I put real effort into mine. Unlike some other I could name...

Vast: Alright, that's it. I don't make boring Walls of Text, at least.

Kurush: They are there for a reason, V! You read them fully, you moron!

_Offside of the argument which soon turned into a fight._

Makie: They're really fighting each other.

Yuuna: Why is that?

Haruna: Oh, they just need to blow off some steam. As men, they get agitated easily. *Drawing something*

Makie: What's that, Paru?

Haruna: Oh, nothing. Nothing. Just a small project, you know? Work.

Makie: Right.

_The two authors stop fighting each other, being bruised and panting heavily._

Kurush: ...Did we just bond?

Vast: What?

Kurush: You know. Like buds. Bonding.

Vast: ...You don't mean like-

Kurush: That's disgusting. Gods, I really hope someone out wasn't watch-

Vast: Why is Haruna sneaking off like that?

_Haruna freezes and her material falls out on the floor, its inventory revealed to the guys._

Kurush & Vast: GET HER!

Haruna: Aaaarggh! *Runs off*

Yuuna: Now they've run off. What now?

Makie: Why is there a camera in front of us?

Yuuna: ...Crap, I think it's chosen us to end this.

Makie: Together?

Yuuna: Why not.

Makie & Yuuna: See you all next chapter!

Makie: It'll be fun!

Yuuna: And be sure to vote for Honya-chan!


	44. Reconnection

**A/N: **_And we're back here! God, that took a while to finish, the honeymoon and all. Anyhow, I hope that you'll like it that there'll be no more sidestories to this one. Probably. I'll just focus on PotM and see if I can get anywhere useful here. Also, I have found an artist who is willing to actually draw my OCs for this story. I will also ask her to make the OCs that all the guest authors have made. With her skill, I have a good feeling about it._

* * *

Symon panted heavily as he leaned on his two arming swords. Only just two hours into the sparring session and he hadn't landed a single blow on his opponent. His partner was merely taking on a very agile and intense dance while he rested for the moment. How his partner was so good with blades was not a total mystery to him. With the Githyanki being a martial culture, it would make sense for them to train their slaves occasionally for battle.

"Again," he spoke up and removed his cloak this time, revealing his athletically honed body.

"Very well," She said and faced him again with her curved short swords.

He moved in against her again, twisting and spinning his swords as he usually did when he fought. Years of practice has made him certainly one of the fastest swordsmen on the planet, probably only matched by Githyanki assassins trained in the same style as he. Oak and Ash has served the young ranger well for more than a month after he had claimed them for his own. But sadly, much to his own shame, he couldn't land a strike on his opponent.

She merely kept on dancing next to and around him, teasing him with blunt blows with her blades and the occasional dance kick that he had trouble dodging. Quite amazing since his reflexes was remarked by many to be as fast as lightning. How she kept the pressure on him was something. Still, he kept up with switching hands between Oak and Ash and twists his grip constantly to try and throw his sparring partner off guard.

She merely aimed for his hands, trying to make him drop his blades and moved around in a pattern that was dazzling and perhaps deliberately seductive. The way she moved certainly would confirm that but whether she was just like that or just to keep him distracted, Symon couldn't tell. He kept his cool but if she actually did something really bold with those moves, he wouldn't be able to withstand it.

It was only sparring yet she treated it almost like a real battle and dragged it on just for the purpose of training. If this was a real battle she could easily slice him to several pieces. In fact, he doubted she would hesitate doing that.

Around them, the villagers were cheering on the sparring match as they circled each other after a vigorous exchange of deflections and dodges. He cracked his own neck to get flexibility. She pushed her fingers together against each other to crack them, allowing her fingers more agile moves.

Soon they were at it again with exchanging attacks against each other. This time they had sped it up. And she could definitely keep with him for some reason. Although he was certainly faster than her in terms of attacking, she had a quicker reaction time than he did. Finally, though, she made a slip with her feet and he took it. Sadly for him, that was a feint which she utilized to deliver a finishing blow to the sparring match.

Later, when they were taking a break, Symon and Ie were sitting next to each other on a bench outside Rad'na's house and he was having a hefty drink from his canteen. "How did you do it?" He asked her with curiosity. "How were you able to counter me that effectively whilst we were sparring?"

She merely looked away from him for some time, watching the young boys of the village practice with their wooden staffs at their own "mini-battles" after having watched the grown-ups done their training for the day.

"I looked at your shoulders," Ie eventually answered him. The thundering of horse galloping approached rapidly and the villagers made way for their priest to get through on a chestnut colored horse accompanied by several other horses that had horned saddles coupled with stirrups on them as well. Rad'na was also carrying a bag filled with scrolls as she went down. "Welcome back, Mistress."

"It's always good to come back here," The Githyanki priest replied kindly and walked up to them. "Symon, could you get Jashol from tutoring the young teenaged boys how to fight? I need you both to understand the _Sending_ spell so we can get the search under way quicker."

* * *

Boris found his charge (Hinagiku) to be quite extraordinary when it came to languages. In just a few days since they started out on their journey to find the others, she had picked the words of their Hobgoblin companion's language really easy and was learning at a fast pace. She could speak simple sentences now with Bax and in turn he was trying to learn how to speak Japanese with her as a tutor.

If the Russian didn't know better, she was already at the level of a small child speaking. He may have paid very good attention in his language courses but she was practically light years ahead of him. Boris would eventually learn Tu'narath's language in time but for now he couldn't know a single word of what the other two were saying.

The hobgoblin found Hina to be quite the obedient student. He had merely shown her at first a few greeting gestures and body language and already she had picked them up and incorporated them into her own, as if they were second nature. When she got a word wrong, he would give a light smack on the head to show her and then they would try to work on the word until she got it right.

Still, there was no word of the others and no word of the Witch. Some merchant they spoke too said that she was just made up to get humans riled up into a good fighting army again. They knew better, but they couldn't find her. Miyazaki had best be alive when they finally found her.

He could tell it on her. Hina was the most worried about her "sister." The two girls had gone close in the short time they'd been together and they looked to each other. Hina wanted some support to herself in order to maintain her... for lack of a better word, sanity since the shotgun introduction to magic and aliens happened so early in her life.

The young lady also wanted to protect something. Nodoka was that something to Hina. It was originally Boris' charge to look after them both but he gave in when it came to her determination to look for the bookworm. As soon as they found the girl, she would certainly-

_Symon speaking. Whole party split up, but alive. Nodoka with us. Jashol too. No clue where others are. Please answer me. Twenty-five words only, please._

That came out of nowhere in her head. How did Symon accomplish that? Although that was a question worth bringing up, that was the best piece of news they had ever heard since they took off together. She'd tell the guys but Symon warned her that twenty-five words was the limit otherwise communication would be broken with the rogue.

Hina stopped the others and pointed to her head, trying to tell them both that someone was talking to her telepathically. Neither of them understood the full meaning of it so she would tell them after she reported back to Symon. "Understood. Boris and Bax with me. Looking for you and others. Unaware of where we are and incapable of common language. Hear from you soon," she told the air and that sensation in her head disappeared.

"Katsura-san, have you gone mad from the fact that we're stuck on a different planet?" Boris asked her with concern in his normal tone.

Flushed, she reacted, "No, it's not like that! I had a voice in my head! A real one done by magic!" Her tone convinced the Russian enough to believe her. It was not his place to question her in the first place. "Look, I can explain. It was Symon that contacted me using some form of telepathic communication. And he had good news."

She told them the news of what Symon told her and both the Russian and the hobgoblin felt joy in that Miyazaki was still alive. How the ranger had contacted them didn't matter at the moment, they could ask him when they met one another again.

For the moment, they could only keep on walking till dusk.

_**Focusing on a certain prince...**_

The little dwarf entered the master's tent to see his master and close friend inspecting his jugular in the mirror. They were on the march back home to the capital and here he was admiring his own face. Typical of normal grown people who were noblemen. But there was another reason that he was looking in that polished metal. Lapo sighed to himself for a brief second. "Looking for a disfigurement that the ladies could exploit, Master?"

"No, no, just inspecting that healer girl's work," Balan answered his little dwarfish jester. "Funny, really. I had an arrow right here," he showed Lapo on the throat whilst talking, "and then this young sweet little lady came and healed it, just like that. Not so much as a scar left behind. Normal priests of Bahamut can't heal that well."

"Perhaps she wasn't a priestess of the Platinum Dragon," Lapo noted. Dwarfs, as they were known to Kalamarans at least, were not an uncommon sight among the humans of Tu'narath. The ones in Kalamar had their own villages and towns, living normal lives with the occasional trader and for lack of a better word, racial tourists. Nevertheless, the dwarfs were appreciated for mainly two things; mechanics and entertainment. Many normal grown humans found the little people hilarious because of their height. But raiders didn't find them funny after they had been showered with bolts from dwarfish crossbows and met close up by axes, mattocks and spears.

Lapo Dilomas was Balan's personal jester and quite truthfully (even if hidden), the prince's best friend. He knew many a joke and outside of entertainment was quite good with his hands. The knights of the 2nd prince might scoff at him but behind the scenes, the little man had saved their backsides more than once. As long as Balan knew of it, it was fine. "So... we're alone to talk right now, yes?" He asked his lord.

"Of course, Lapo. We always talk together. Let Lakaran and the knights be. They can talk all they want, what we do is none of their business, is it?" Balan asked the dwarf.

"No, you are right as always, Master." Lapo took the opportunity to walk up to the prince's side and got up on a chair to reach his collar. "Here, you always make a mess of your front when trying to get the mantle on." He took the strings of Balan's royal mantle and tied it together with skillful precision. "You could have invited her, you know."

"With that bodyguard she had, Lapo, I doubt it," Balan replied whilst letting his friend work on the mantle knots. "She was married to begin with and whomsoever have landed a beautiful girl like that one must have a really good reputation to themselves."

"That wouldn't have stopped you before, Master," Lapo pointed out. "Perhaps you were doing it as a favor for healing you?"

"...Yes, it could have been that." Balan straightened himself out once the jester was done. "But even if I tried, that bodyguard would have cut me. I dared not take that chance. If she wasn't there though... I would have attempted it."

"Even gone as far as persuading her husband to annulling the marriage?" Lapo asked.

"Maybe. Or if he had objections and was a ruthless abuser of her, I would kill him instead," Balan replied. "I'm not some brute like my brother who hits first and then asks a question if hitting the guy was a good idea. I need to think things through before making decisions. That's how kings do it."

"Yes, your great ambition to become King of Kalamar," Lapo pointed out while rolling his eyes upward. "It's been years and your stupid brother has yet to get himself killed. He knows how to look out for himself."

"Oh, don't worry. I have taken steps to ensure that," Balan told the dwarf. "What's more, I have had this really odd feeling in my head that Balamir will meet his death very soon. So odd in fact, it's starting to spook me..."

"Balan?"

Balan stepped away from the short one and scratched his head too before speaking, "I don't know. Ever since I was healed I've been a bit... peculiar. It's like I can tell what's going to happen next in the form of nagging feelings in my head and more recently, strange events has happened around me. Am I being plagued by an arcane spirit? Or is something happening to me? I can't tell," he told the dwarf with genuine concern.

"Are you certain it's not like that incident that involved that bighorn ram-"

"It's not like that, Lapo," Balan nearly yelled at his friend with genuine concern. "This is really not funny! I mean, what is happening to me?" As he extended his arms at that moment, his left hand released a burst of flames whilst his right molded into living rock. The dwarfish jester's eyes likened those of a fish when he saw the spectacle and Balan looked as if he was going to give birth. To a caribou, nonetheless! The only reason that he didn't panic because of the flames was because that despite his frightened behavior, the prince of Kalamar discovered one thing about the flames.

They weren't hurting him.

Realizing (and hoping for it) that he had made the flames and the rocky hand, the prince started taking deep breaths at first before concentrating. Slowly his hands went to normal as if the flames and the rocky transmutation had never occurred. He found himself right. "Not a word of this, Lapo," he told his friend. "Not a word."

"I understand, Balan," the dwarf confirmed. "But after all, who, oh whom, would believe a simple dwarfish jester?"

_**I hope Honya's training is going well?**_

"Well, much thanks to lady Efromm, that was the least enjoyable survival lesson I've ever been on," Ela lamented as the large group of students along with the two teachers were camping for the night in a forest some distance from Greenwood's.

"And how many times do I have to tell you that I was not expecting that pack of owlbears so close to the trolls lair?" The aforementioned Githyanki said offended to the half-drow. "Okay, examining trolls was a little much even for Master Rincewind's lesson but the owbears were not exactly part of the divinations, now were they?"

"Enough," the old wizard told the two women to cut it out. "We all survived with only minor wounds anyway and we got away, much thanks to lady Efromm's expertise. Now take your seats so we can enjoy some decent food."

About three years into her training, Nodoka has had an intriguing time. She made few friends in the class save Ela and a few select who shared her opinion about how life should be lived and she was popular with the teachers for her obedience during lessons and was a very bright lady. Though her enrollment had been endowed by Fashtar, the other masters at Greenwood's respected his word since he was a good teacher nonetheless and one that the students looked to in case of trouble. The only problem with him was that he was away for years so lessons with him were sought after.

For now, though, she had to settle with one of the less popular yet vital masters. Rincewind was the Master of Survival, a skill that would help wizards overcome any obstacle in their path. And he himself was a very old wizard himself which apparently spoke highly of his own power of survival if it was deemed a necessary skill. He surrounded himself with magical items, in particular those that would help him escape from horrid situations. Nodoka was one of his best students when it came to finding traps that others might have in store for an unsuspecting wizard. He just said when asked the question why it was necessary, "You sound as if you actually want to die," in a cynical tone.

Still, he was good enough to take them on field trips and everybody liked those, except when they had to run for their lives. It was a good thing he always brought a couple of priests with them so the students could be healed or if it came to it, raised from the dead. He had that good contacts.

And for once, Efromm was with them as back-up protector. Her original position was personal tutor to Nodoka but the protection for all the students was top priority as well.

"...and that is how you make a good coner stew," Rincewind told the students as he showed them how to cook a pair of tender coners, small furry animals that resembled rabbits in the bookworm's eyes. "Cooking is part of survival as well."

"Master, I still don't understand why you insist that we learn some mundane things when we can use magic to fix it instead," a male student pointed out for the old and he just glared at the young man.

"And I don't understand why you insist on thinking that waving some fingers around and chanting whilst dinner is getting cold would fix the problem." Rincewind filled up a bowl and handed it to the young student. "Now, can someone please remind young Amati one of the first things we teach you in Greenwood's?"

"Magic is not everything," Nodoka recited from the first lesson they had with the teachers in collective. "You need to adapt to situations that you come across all the time or you will fail. Relying on the Art will only lead to ruin."

"Correct as always, Miyazaki," Rincewind praised her and handed her a bowl that had coner meat in it. "The Art is there for when we need it, not when we want it. You want to be successful as a wizard, learn to stay alive too. Then you can see if the Art will save you all the time."

Another – less successful – student scoffed at her. "Teacher's pet."

That earned him a smack on the head from Efromm. "I take offense at her being called teacher's pet. Anyone who wishes to badmouth my charge is going to have to take on me," she threatened them whilst bowls were being handed out. Seeing as no one was going to, she picked two quarterstaves and headed off from the campfire. "Speaking of other skills, I'll be at the oak tree when you've finished eating, Nodoka."

Seeing as the blonde woman walked off, the bookworm slumped down with her shoulders. "Another martial training session?" Ela asked her quietly. "Nodoka, it's been three years already. Maybe you should quit."

"I wish I could," Nodoka replied and finished her bowl before walking away from the camp.

"Martial training?" Another female student asked Ela as they watched Nodoka take a quarterstaff from the Githyanki woman and took a stance a minor distance away.

"Supposedly, Nodoka's going to play a big part in a war for them," The half-drow whispered to her. "She had a few incidents that nearly got her killed so they decided to put a stop to having her be unprepared for situations. That's what she told me when I asked her why she was sent to Greenwood's. Can't say I would blame them if I knew even half the whole story."

"And it's something to consider as well," Rincewind told them whilst taking out his pipe to smoke. "One day, you're going to learn that wizards cannot defeat everything in this world so you ought to have something else to do damage."

"Okay, how come you could hear us with all the chatter around?" Ela asked of the old man whilst Efromm and Nodoka first took it slow with exchanging blows with the staffs. "I mean, we were whispering."

Rincewind merely chuckled at her first. "As an old man and as your master in terms of magic, I have the right to oversee your conversations. And what's the point of you not understanding something outside of what we teach you if I can't give you advice to use in the future?"

"Still spooky," said the other female student and some of them watched the spar between the human girl and the Githyanki woman.

At first, they traded blows slowly with each other for the young girl to learn various attacks, blocks and counters one could use with a staff. A notable one was deflecting the incoming staff when it attacked and using the momentum to hit the enemy head. Efromm went in close and used her body as well to act as weight against the bookworm and put her down on the ground. After pulling her up and explaining a few things further, they commenced a real spar.

Efromm went in first, going for a high attack. Nodoka deflected it to the side and attempted a stab that was dodged. The Githyanki then came in close but Nodoka predicted it and grabbed hold of the woman's leather outfit for an attempt to throw her using the old Jujutsu moves that Boris first showed her when they first came to Tu'narath. The throw itself worked but not the full movement and Efromm slammed one palm on the ground to throw the purple haired girl off balance and then pin her on the ground.

Nodoka still had her staff and used the element of speed to deliver a blow that connected to Efromm's head that gave her a concussion, allowing the bookworm a chance to break free and reassert her stance. The blonde woman got up fast herself and grabbed hold of the staff that Nodoka before flinging it away.

And then she patted the girl's head. "Getting better, Nodoka," she praised her before using a sneaky move to throw her down to the ground. "But still gullible."

"And this is why I don't like these sessions, Efromm-san," Nodoka told the blonde Githyanki as she was being helped up.

"You're not supposed to like them." Efromm walked back to the camp and fetched her own bowl of coner stew. "You're supposed to learn from them."

"And there's another-"

"Oh, shut up!" Ela shouted at the old man.

_**How is Asuna holding up?**_

Asuna shouted the exact same words at the Merc with a Mouth for singing some lousy tune about some kid finally "doing it with a super-hot chick" whilst they were on the march in the wasteland after getting teleported back to what remained of Samasal. "Why are you singing that tune anyway? We didn't ask for any singing."

"Aww, but I've been looking over a few things and I found out that (Name Deleted for Deadpool-based security reasons) has finally gotten laid. And with a really hot chick at that! I couldn't be more proud of the little bugger," said Deadpool with very expressive arm movements.

They all stared at him. "How did an electronic bleep occur when you were about to say the name?" asked Asuna.

"Oh. The author doesn't want plot exposure, it seems. And he is starting to take measures against me breaking the fourth wall. Meh, I'll find some way," said the mercenary. His own ring tone sounded again from his cell so he picked it up. A few moments later, the conversation ended. "He said that if I break it too severely, he was gonna dump me in a volcano that is erupting and seal me inside without means of escaping."

"That ought to stop you from annoying us, at least," said the redhead girl. "I hope it'd be worth it."

"Aww, don't be like that, Asuna," said the merc.

"Here we go again," grunted Saber watching the two squabble.

"I mean, look deep, deeeeep inside you, Asuna. And I know, deep inside of you... you have feelings for me. Admit it, you like me," said the nutcase in a red jumpsuit.

_**Blam!**_ Asuna had shot him again with her shotgun. "Yeah, when all the hells in the multiverse freezes over and Minsc's sword can talk."

Minsc, rather than try to encourage the mercenary with confirming that his sword actually could, kept his mouth quiet for once until they would meet some opposition.

"Let's get a move on, everybody," said Saber loudly. "There could be Tyranids about and this argument could bring them here. We should find shelter for the night and see what we can find by using scrying."

Another hour passed in silence (as it got with DP around) and they didn't find much. But they did find 'Nids, so they hid from them to avoid massive battles. Of course, each of them could handle a score of them on their own but it'd be best to avoid them as much as possible. Saber reasoned this with the Hive Mind. If one 'nid spotted them, then that one bug could alert the entire swarm and all of Samasal's tyranids would assault them constantly. Even with the powers they had, even they could not face millions. Or billions.

"Hey, I just had a thought," said Deadpool and everybody stared at him yet again. "What?"

"It involves striking at the tyranids, does this thought not?" asked the protoss warrior.

"Well, yeah it does. But hear me out. We can't always be hiding so here's what I thought; we need to make sure that we do not get harassed by them constantly whilst on the move. The occasional warband, fine, but an entire swarm of these things?" He pointed his finger at the current army of bugs they were observing. "We engage these things, we could send a mental signal into the Hive Mind telling it that trying to kill us will only result in disaster."

"And I suppose you manage to figure out how to send this message?" asked Saber. "And just how do you suggest that we send this message to them?"

"Kill the big bug that control the others?" The mercenary answered her and she widened her eyes. "I know of hive minds, okay? Make a hole big enough and it'll be scared. That's how I think it goes."

Asuna and Saber looked at one another first. The Gith knight spared a glance at Aerie to see if she had prepared any spells for combat. Their archmage flashed her a smile and gently patted her spellbook. She didn't need to look at Minsc as she heard him draw his greatsword. "Alright. We'll try it. No stunts, we stick together and form concentrated attacks and defenses. Keeping Aerie protected takes priority."

"Got it," Deadpool replied and drew his pistols.

"Understood," Asuna and the protoss said at the same time, activating their weapons.

"We'll do our best," said Aerie.

"Squeak," said Boo, their little hamster. One of the 'nids heard the little pet and snarled loudly enough for the others to get the attention as well.

"Move!" The Gith knight rushed out first with her silver blade raised high and her own psionic abilities ready.

"Buttkicking!" Minsc followed suit with Asuna and the protoss at his flanks and all their weapons ready. "For Goodness!"

"Chimichanga!" Deadpool shouted whilst shooting his guns at the tyranids and standing in front of Aerie who spoke various arcane incantations to aid their side greatly.

The six of them was in truth engaging a swarm of 'nids that numbered in no less than four thousand. Most of which were simple gaunts whilst some were larger than Minsc and the protoss if they stood on top of one another. Still, that the small group of heroes them were no slouches was certainly proven this time. The three sword fighters of their team were each highly dangerous to the swarm numbers whilst their protoss warrior proved himself a most valiant and efficient fighter with holding back the enemy with his own psionic powers and techniques taught among the Protoss.

Deadpool mocked the 'nids as much as he could whilst shooting them with his guns and never having to reload at some point, for a reason he certainly would explain later. Their elven archmage showered her allies with spells that aided them in combat and on occasion using a simple wand to deliver fireballs. The beautiful woman was showing herself as one you would not cross.

"Go for the big ones," Saber yelled over the roars of the beasts as she slashed them apart and cutting off their heads with skillful precision. "The synapse link!"

"Understood!" Aerie replied over the noise and spoke the words for a classical spell to fire at the closest of the great 'nids. She chose the fireball. Everyone knows what a fireball can do. It detonated with violent force and sent a psychic backlash throughout the swarm, making dozens of gaunts feral and turning on the rest of the swarm.

For Asuna, this was pretty much the first time that she was killing things en mass. Maybe she would seek mental help for the justification of killing living beings but right now, it didn't matter. The tyranids were trying to kill them and that was reason enough to return the favor. At any rate, her greatsword and shotgun were adequate enough to render their armor obsolete.

She did however, fail to notice that one Warrior that came in close to her. It sank one of its claws down her thigh and sent her flying toward the end of a cliff. "Asuna!" Saber called out as the redhead fell down.

"NOOOO!" Deadpool screamed in agony. Then he directed his M-16 with laser sighted scope at the Tyranids. "I'm gonna kill you all! You ruined my chance at an actual romance with a princess action girl! DIE, DIE, DIE!"

Boo followed the redheaded girl down the cliff, squeaking highly as he went down the cliff too.

* * *

_I am not getting into a romance with that guy,_ Asuna thought once she had crashed. "Hooh... still alive. How?" She asked herself before remembering what Andreas had said back when they had done an inventory of their cargo hold. "Oh, right, Ankh of Life."

"Squeak," said Boo as he finally came down to her side. "Oh, Boo. Came down for me, did you?"

"Squeak."

"Aw, that's real nice of you," she praised the little rodent, giving it a petting with her finger. "But that crash really did hurt me. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," she groaned as she strained herself to get up on her feet. Boo squeaked at her but she simply said, "I'm fine." Once she got up on her feet, she looked up to the top of the cliff. "Oof, quite a fall there. And ow, did that hurt despite the armor."

Massive footstomps came behind her and Boo. The two of them found four massive Tyranid beasts larger than that Tyrant they killed together over at old man Rufus. The size of tanks or something bigger, they sported claws taller than herself and more thick than Minsc in his plate armor. Huge tusks and vicious teeth, they could chew through any plating. And all Asuna had with her was her shotgun and her greatsword and Boo.

"Err... Oh, you know what, forget preparing ahead, I'm taking you all on!" She shouted and picked up her big sword. This is gonna be a massacre. We can't watch this.

_**Over at the Singing Blades**_

Archery practice was constant with the Blades, even if their names stated otherwise. Everyday, those who trained with bows and used them in battle would get up early and set up their practice targets and then set to see that their bows were still in good condition before firing their arrows. That was how the rest of the Blades woke up, to the sound of arrows hitting their targets and the twang of bowstrings snapping the bows back to their normal shape.

For trained soldiers like Rev'keth and Raydan, this was not unusual. For cilivian girls, however, this was new. Akira and Chizuru woke up groaning in Rev'keth's tent after having been allowed to live in his tent as most men in the camp were not exactly the most gentle people. Raydan didn't have the space in his own tent so the girls were in the Gith's residence until they could afford their own. In return, Akira had to work as the one who helped him get his armor when it was time for battle. So far, that hadn't happened but with a band of mercs, it was a matter of time.

Other than that, they were free to do what they wanted as long as they didn't try to escape. Captain Anchev was quite generous with that and he did give his word that they'd be safe as long as they were with the camp.

Chizuru would mostly stay inside the tent and study the scrolls she got, memorizing the Latin and ancient Greek the best she could and using meditation breathing techniques that she had been shown by Fate back when they did have their lessons. For all he had done in the past, he was a good teacher.

Akira was observing the archers practice with their bows instead, being out of her own armor. Being in a simple large tunic provided by the mercenary band, she felt more like a piece of eye candy to them rather than a fellow traveler. But given that war was for men and kitchens and beds for girls, no big surprise there. Earth, until recently, was the same as this place. Still, she was in training herself so she'd better get to it.

Then she noticed that man who was friends with Rev'keth. Raydan, she thought his name was. He was one of the archers practicing, which would explain his right arm being somewhat more muscular than the other. It most likely had something to do with the bow. He noticed her as well and paused his archery practice for a moment. Didn't take long for the other new companion to sneak on her.

"You seem like you care to try," said the Gith knight and she was startled. The old knight was in his own normal clothing, a woolen tunic with baggy trousers that contrasted his regal cape. Upon seeing her confused expression, he added, "Archery. You seem like you wanted to try it."

"Oh," said the swimmer as if she didn't know she had that look on her face. "Well, it did look interesting from a distance. And I just don't want to feel like I'm some eye candy for the men, if you understand me."

Rev'keth was quiet for a short while before walking over to the archers and telling one of them to give up his bow for a moment. "Come on, then," he called to her and gestured with the bow. "You want to contribute, this is the best choice for you." Very much reluctantly about it, the swimmer girl walked over to them and took the bow, allowing herself to be put into position among the other archers.

Some of the guys snickered and made some smooth whistles at the girl as she was learning how to shoot arrows. The whole thing about a woman using weapons for battle was nearly preposterous. They dared not however, go and harass her due to the proximity of the Gith Knight and her connection to the Witch. One select bad word and she would turn them all into fungi and sell them at the nearest Githyanki settlement. Apart from the good rothe meat, they were crazy about fungi. Still, words were just words.

"Hey, guys, there is more to at least this woman than just her curves," Rev'keth told them and looked them in the eye. "For instance," he continued and went to actually touch Akira on said parts as he mentioned them. "What you see on her is a really cute face, black long elegant hair, a beautiful pair of breasts, quite slim hips, a firm butt and neat legs."

"You are getting it for doing that," said the swimmer under her breath so only he could hear.

"_I know,"_ replied the Gith telepathically before addressing the soldiers. "What I see, on the other hand, is someone who has trained their body intensely through heavy exercise. Look at these muscles, for instance." He took a small grip on Akira's arm and squeezed. He couldn't get into the arm very much because of the muscle build. "These are not something you acquire from a bedroom or the like. No, you gain these through years of training within a certain exercise."

Akira loosed her first arrow and it struck into the chosen target real deep. "I swim a lot where I'm from," she told them easily whilst getting another arrow.

"No wonder you're in such good shapes," a man snarked loudly with accompanied sniggers from the others.

Raydan shot them down. "So you're pretty much saying that you guys are not in good shapes? It'd be a shame if the ladies in the next town were to pick her over you."

"Uh, hello? I'm standing right here," spoke the swimmer girl loudly for them. "And here I thought Kakizaki had lechery issues..." She muttered whilst loosing another arrow and her forearm was stung by the bowstring. "Ow, that hurt."

"We'll get you an armguard for that," said Rev'keth. "In any event, you boys shouldn't try to harass this girl. Not only could she get better with a bow, she'd also pack a mean punch."

"That does remind me," said Akira before she actually knocked out the Gith Knight with said move. As soon as he went down on the ground, she addressed the rest of them. "And just so you know, I wasn't using all my strength there. Get me mad and you'll regret it." With that, she handed back the bow and left for the tent.

Raydan walked up to their companion as the guys continued their archery training. "You look like you could do with some first aid to that."

"I was expecting that," said Rev'keth. "She gave me a warning before I mentioned her exercise training, giving me enough to erect a shield around me. Even so, it did hurt."

"Shield not working?" The weapon master asked as he helped the knight get up. "Or did you just fail that class when you went to school?"

"I did not fail my training, I'm merely holding back," said the Githyanki. "As one should when they have a lot of personal power."

Raydan did agree with that last notion silently but he just had to ask him, "So, that means you intentionally got beaten up by a woman?"

"Something you failed to do? Oh yes," countered Rev'keth. "Because I'll tell you this; if I were to ever go all out, much thanks to my," he cleared his throat first, ""high level training," this entire camp would be mincemeat within ten seconds."

"Te-ten seconds!" Raydan exclaimed.

"Indeed," said the knight. "But I choose to hold back that power unless we were to encounter a truly dangerous and powerful foe. And we both know whom I'm talking about."

"Averruncus," said the weapon master.

"Exactly." The knight brushed off the dirt off his tunic and examined the camp. "Look, the captain'll probably move this army somewhere real soon as soon as we get someone to hire us. How about you go and rally some mounts or a chariot for the girls? We could use them if it comes to it."

"You know, I'm still new to the whole thing about women being in battle. Even with my sensei and lady Nodoka, it's a bit radical for me," said Raydan.

"It's probably because of how they're raised in your society," said the knight. "Now, I gotta go." As he walked off into the camp to check up on the other girl, a familiar voice rang in his head for about twenty-five words or so.

_Jashol speaking. Witch with me and Symon and safe. Sister with Boris and Bax also safe, not with us. Hope you with Raydan. Over._

That was Jashol, their latest addition to the group. That was good news to hear in this time. He'd share it with Raydan at the moment. He grabbed an empty plate made of wood and tossed it so it would hit him on the shoulder. Once that got the weapon master's attention, Rev'keth gestured to his head and then pointed in the direction of his tent. For the moment, Raydan nodded to him so it'd be known he understood.

With that issue out of the way, Rev'keth replied whilst walking up to his tent, "Raydan with me. Having unusual guests right now. With mercenary band Singing Blades and looking for you. Will keep eyes out for Hina and company."

_**Back to Asuna**_

"Asuna!" Saber called out as they were running down the canyon to get to their companion. It had been about two hours since they finished the battle and they didn't know how she had fared after she fell down that deep cliff.

"Asuna!" Aerie called out as well.

"Boo!" Well, Minsc was concerned as well about their hamster. It wasn't just the redheaded girl that was in trouble.

"Come on, come on, come on!" You-have-three-guesses-who-it-is-and-the-first-two-are-wrong called and urged them on to find their companions. "We gotta find her and our little hamster. My prospect of being a future main character in this story is in peril!"

"Look, will you shut up about that?" Saber retorted to him. "You are not a future main character here, none of us are."

"Not the way I see it," DP told her.

"Look, give me that phone and I call this "author" of yours and ask him about-" she stopped talking as they passed a corner and found a sight that left them rather speechless. "About... it."

Four giant tyranid carcasses lay strewn out about the ravine and the rocky layer and blood was flowing freely. Something had happened here. "Asuna?" Aerie called gently in the hope that nothing hostile was nearby.

"Over here," called the redhead and they ran over to find her sitting on a rock next to the torn off head of one of the beasts. Boo was on her shoulder. "I need to ask, what took longest, the battle or the way down here?" She asked them casually.

"The latter," the protoss answered her whilst Aerie saw to the injuries. "I admit I did not expect this sight."

"Squeak."

"Boo says "That was amazing. You're as good as Minsc sometimes." He did say so," said the full plated fighter of their group.

"Squeak."

"I think he wasn't saying that, Minsc-san," said Asuna. She extracted her greatsword and put it over her shoulder once Aerie had healed her completely. She was starting to turn out better than Konoka in this case. "Shall we get a move on? The swarms are likely to give us some pause before regrouping with a proper strategy."

"I'M IN LOVE!" A new voice cried out, surprising half of them with its origin and completely different tone. "I got to know your sword's name, I'm dying to know it!"

"Who's that?" Asuna called out, waving her own sword about.

"Oh, it's just Larry," answered Minsc. "Larry, meet Asuna, friend and champion of goodness. Asuna, meet Larry, my sword."

"What, wait a minute," she asked him to stop there. "Your sword can actually talk?"

"Yes he can," replied the ranger. "Together we have stemmed the tides of evil wherever we go. Here we are all heroes, you and Boo and I, hamsters and people everywhere, rejoice!"

"Always so hammy," said Deadpool. "But hey, since Larry could talk all along, does that mean, hmmm?"

"All the Hells in the multiverse got to freeze over first, Deadpool," retorted Asuna and threatened him with the shotgun. "And I'd rather kiss the Green Goblin before that."

"Osborn? What's so good about him?" The merc asked her. "The guy is an insane nutjob with a multi-billion company, a determination to make profit and... I'm not making a very good defense for my case, am I?"

"Insanity was a good point, but you lost track from there," said the redhead whilst they resumed their travels. "Come on, let's find a cave to have some shelter."

_**Somewhere inside the Diorama sphere**_

Zasian Menz has had a good life since he double-crossed Vhok. The Cyricist had done some pretty good favors for his master and he had kept a little trophy from that time and he had been looking to a good retirement and living his days out in peace directing other followers of the same cause to commit deeds as vile as he.

Not once in his time period did he figure that he would be persecuted and attacked by a green skinned slim man upon a strange flying device and throwing explosives after him whilst laughing hysterically. "So, this is the infamous Zasian Menz," said this "goblin" whilst throwing another pumpkin themed explosive after him. "You don't look much."

"What the hells are you doing, attacking me like that?" Menz asked him. "I've done nothing wrong."

"Oh, that's what they all say when confronted by someone who's got proof," said his assailant. "Always trying to deny their involvement of something they so obviously did."

"What are you doing here to begin with, you freak? No goblin is that big as you are," said Menz. "And no one else flies a contraption like yours."

"Well, let's just say that a good little evil wizard came by and offered me a pretty hefty reward if I was to get something from you," answered the goblin. "And when he topped it with a little bonus that would let me become a very rich man... who am I to say no?"

Menz thought for a brief second there. Goblins didn't think of themselves as "man" or the like in their society. "Mind telling me who you are?" He asked whilst trying to retrieve his hand crossbow.

The goblin merely smiled and readied his fingers and another bomb. "No... I don't think so."

There was many an explosion that night...

* * *

**A/N:**_ Phew-weee, what was I _**_thinking_**_ that last part? Something like to boost something's popularity or something? At any rate, this chapter's done. Please enjoy it for the moment until I can get the next one underway. _

_See if you can spot any cameos in this one. This may seem a bit half-assed (I know), but the one who gets Both of them (character and specific series) right gets to know spoilers of the next chapter And be allowed to make a suggestion to it. _**_You are not allowed to search on the net._**_ I mean it._

_Rev'keth, karma is _**_so_**_ not your friend. But that aside, it was not very common for women to fight alongside the men in battle if they fought at all. Okay, okay, I know there are evidence of them being in military service throughout history but there are concerns even today that women are not eligible for combat. Take note that Tu'narath is not Earth and therefore it is a different culture in which human women has no place on the battlefield, except as surgeons' apprentices and prostitutes. I don't want to be seen as a sexist, I just want people to know that this is how things are actually run. I will not, under any circumstances, try to portray women as being slaves to men, but they will certainly not have a place in battle, the obvious exceptions are our heroines in this story._

_Anyway, goodbye for now. I need to put together various pieces for what will probably be infamous by this story's standards if I've done it right._


	45. Friends on the Other Side

**A/N: **_Here we go again. My one statement here is that I planned it months ago. Onwards! Forwards for the sake of the madness of my own fic writing! Let it take its rightful place alongside the works of Shadow Crystal Mage and Overmaster! As for the rest, make widows unnumbered, orphans beyond count! Let the KonoSetsu fics (except for Egg Belly) _**_BURN!_**

* * *

About two days after they had set off together, Hina and her company (after receiving the message sent by Symon) were having a meal that was caught using rope cut and made by Bax and set by Boris to trap some wild herbivore animal and then grilled over an open fire in the forest. Then Bax had to go fetch some wild plants in the forest that seemed almost inedible by the humans' perspective. Then again, what he could eat, so could they. Plus they were starving so beggars can't be choosers.

Boris was fine with just one of its legs as food for him whilst giving Hina the tenderloin of the beast, or at least that's what he thought it was. They had also the small fortune of finding a small spring of water to drink from.

"Well, that was just about the best news we could hope for," said their appointed leader Hinagiku, referring to the sending they received. It was good that Nodoka was still alive but they couldn't send word to where she was in retaliation. "But we'd best find some means of getting word to her."

"Find a town?" Boris suggested.

"That's a start, but we need to find out where to find her too," Hina told him. ("Bax, what you think?")

("About finding some way of getting word to Miyazaki?") He asked her whilst crushing some roots and plant in a mortar using a pestle and reading from that book he always carried with him to crush into fine dust. ("If I know the landmarks correctly, the city of Huttasa should be about a day away from where we are now.")

"Huttasa," Hina repeated the name. "Good. We could do well with seeing lord Sverker again." She took a drink of water before returning to the tenderloin of the animal. After a few moments of eating and drinking, she found herself quite uncomfortable and she knew why. "Uh oh." The statement caught the attention of both men. "I just realized the big problem with wearing armor all the time."

"Huh?"/("What?") Both of them asked at the same time.

Hina shifted quite a lot whilst looking for something. "Um, could you guys excuse me? I need to go somewhere private."

"Where to?" asked Boris. "There could be wild animals in the forest."

"For what I'm suffering right now, I'm willing to take that chance," she told him in return.

Boris (clueless to what it was) rose up when she did. "Maybe I should-" he was stopped when she put a hand on his shoulder and got up real close with an angry expression, something he hadn't seen from her before.

"Boris-san, perhaps you ought to be familiar with the term, "Nature calls"," said Hina quietly and then he finally understood what she was referring to.

"Bushes to the right, they're quite thick," he said after a while and pointing her in the right direction. She rushed over there immediately.

"Please, please, let this armor be easy to get out of!" She yelled as she cornered it.

("What's the ruckus with her?") Bax asked the Russian, even though they couldn't speak the same language. From the bushes, they heard clicks and then a loud clonk, some more shuffling and finally, a sigh of relief. "Oo," said Bax, understanding.

"I'm surprised about that feature," said Hina from the bushes and Boris steeled himself from thinking about something that had to do with her at the moment.

"What feature?" He just had to ask.

"You know the bottom section of my armor, the part that goes around my waist?" She asked him first then continued, "It's detachable."

He groaned and tried very hard at not thinking about it too much. To consider that was wrong on a lot of levels. _It's a good thing I was taught much self-restraint thanks to the presence of the other members of YOMI. God knows how much stress I'd have to face on this planet whilst looking out for them. _Some clicks later, she emerged back with them in full armor. _We'd best find Miyazaki-san and fast-_

The breaking of a twig interrupted his thoughts and alerted all three of them. There was something out there and it was close by. If Bax understood something from Boris, it was body movement. Whilst the big Russian moved himself into position, the hobgoblin closed his fingers around his small bronze shortsword and Hina's hand went for Masamune. She pulled it out fast and as on a start signal, Boris jumped in the direction of the sound and Bax drew his sword.

"Kyaaahn!" A female voice cried out and it was too late to stop their actions whilst Bax and Hina followed Boris' suit into the wilderness to find him holding two girls by their arms. Hina recognized that particular voice and stopped herself whilst putting a hand on Bax. Then she saw the girls' faces and practically her entire world stopped at the sight at the first one.

"Ayumu?"

_**In Greenwood's, during Necromancy class**_

"...so we understand that whilst animating the dead and using their corpses is usually thought to be immoral," spoke the Githyanki master in front of the auditorum filled with novices watching him and a table that held up the moving corpse of a recently hanged criminal who had volunteered his body to be delivered to the academy. "we do need to keep in mind that the art of necromancy is not evil in itself. There has been evil wizards who has researched necromancy and who has created many of the spells that we use nowadays but the school itself is a tool to be used, just like any other.

"So no, I am not your master in the art just so I can manipulate you into doing my evil bidding, novice Siregar," said Fashtar as he had given a long sermon on whether necromancy was an evil school and he was going to show them the pleasure of it. Several of the other novices sniggered and giggled at the joke he made. He noticed one of his favorite students raising a hand and smiled. "Yes, Miyazaki?"

"In corroboration with Siregar's question, what is necromancy about, really?" Nodoka asked him.

"Now that is a good question and one you novices should always consider," said the master to the students. "It varies from person to person. Some would see it as the means to an end, others as a simple tool just like any other, like I told you. Personally I'd see it as being about the manipulation of life force. A necromancer can use this school to control it, use it, create, destroy, restore, even move it." To demonstrate, he brandished a knife and plunged it into his arm, then used his other arm to touch the zombie and the novices could see arcane energy emit from the zombie, transferring into Fashtar's arm. Then it collapsed, truly dead as its life force was spent. "Take heed before using that particular spell, everyone. But remember, the life force that keeps us all alive is sparse and we can barely afford to use it freely. Use the spells that control its flow with care and you'll go great distances."

About four years after the enrollment, the bookworm and her half-drow friend has had a very good education at Greenwood's. Fashtar was not related in any way to Nodoka so it was fine that he taught her. He was also as strict with her as he was with the others, even if he had a sense of humor due to being more worldly than the other masters in the school.

A knock on the door to the room came and a senior novice who would be graduating the same year popped his head in. "Master Fashtar, there is a… "mercenary" here who came here to see you."

"This better not be the same merc who double crossed me and is still hoping to get paid for his "services"," Fashtar snarled and the novice left the room to allow the mercenary entrance.

"None of that, mister Fashtar," said the well dressed man in a closed modern coat, from the bookworm's perspective. Tall with dark red and cropped hair, the man resembled someone she had seen before but couldn't place it. He carried a weaved basket as well in his left hand. "I'm the kind of mercenary who gets the job done right when the pay is right."

"Oh, you came." The Githyanki beamed with a good mood to himself and shook the man's hand. "Good to see you again, Mr Osborn."

"Glad to be here, at last," Osborn told him and had a look around. "I'm not disturbing something important, am I?"

"No, no one was asking any specific questions and they were taking notes anyway. Right?" he asked them and the novices scrambled into scribbling down what their master had told them.

"Good to see such good pupils in your magic, Mr Fashtar," Osborn complimented them. "Some of them remind me of some young man I could name. Good kid. Same goes for these children." Then he noticed one of them at the top sneaking in a little nap during the lesson. "And there are those who remind me of some other boy I could mention." Before the master of the room could do anything to remedy that, Osborn threw something small and fast that stuck itself next to the novice's head. It was a shuriken. He woke up and started scribbling down notes about the lesson.

"Nice," was the compliment he received from the master.

"I do my best. Now, let's get down to business, shall we?" Osborn asked him and the novices stopped in their scribbling to view the two.

"Business?" Several of them asked.

"Mind if I give them a bonus lesson, Mr Fashtar?" Osborn asked and then addressed the audience. "I'm sure you'll understand that sometimes... "wizards" tend to have several contacts with various kinds of people to aid them in their respective chosen line of work."

"Such as yourself, Mr Osborn?" One of them asked him.

"Indeed," answered the "mercenary". "I'm not normally a mercenary, I actually specialize in supplying them. But since Master Fashtar found out a little thing about me, he asked me to take care of things personally since average mercs would, and I quote; "screw things up with such delicate matters at hand"."

"And what of you, Mr Osborn? Did you accomplish it?" Fashtar asked.

"I found Mr Menz and I engaged him in my own sense," said Osborn. "He had the item as you requested and I retrieved it." He retrieved a long case to house something long from his coat to hand over to the Githyanki.

"There was a snag, I take it," stated Fashtar as he cleared the table of the dead zombie to put the case there.

"Mr Menz thought that if he couldn't have it," Osborn told him whilst the case was opened to reveal a heap of splintered wood, shattered blue gemstones and shrapnel of quality metal. "Then no one would have it. I did the best I could."

"No apology?"

"I never apologize," said Osborn. "I did, however, bring a little bonus which I think would please you." He presented the woven basket to the Gith. "Hope you'll like it."

Fashtar took a look inside the basket and then closed it immediately. "Why thank you, Mr Osborn. Unnecessary, but I'm pleased to see that Menz was willing to present another gift to me." Several of the students shuddered as they realized exactly what it was that was in the basket. Even more so when their master had the basket along with its contents incinerated. "I do believe that earned you your bonus."

"Figured it'd make you happy," said Osborn. "What do you have?"

"Err, excuse us," Ela, sitting next to Nodoka called up to the two grown up men. "Should this be something you ought to do outside of class? It's getting in the way of our studies."

"Oh. I'll take it after class then," Osborn replied and headed for the door before stopping briefly. "Oh, incidentally, I was asked by someone else on the way to deliver something." He picked out a letter with a strange seal on it. "A small flying red creature asked me to deliver this to a Ms Miyazaki, a novice in this school."

"Eh? For me?" Nodoka blurted out accidentally and Osborn noticed her before tossing it over to her. Ela caught it for her. Then Osborn left the room.

Fashtar groaned first before saying, "Miyazaki. You may be one of this year's top students and an excellent wizard in your own right and way... but you might to keep an eye on your mouth when it comes to matters regarding yourself." To that, several novices (mainly those who had a dislike for her) laughed. "Now, as Belmere requested, let's wrap up today's lesson."

* * *

About thirty minutes later, Osborn entered an empty auditorium classroom, with the Githyanki sitting by his desk with a briefcase. "I like students who put their studies ahead of distractions," he stated blatantly to the Gith.

"Belmere is a good pupil and quite rare for her kind," said Fashtar. "Being half-drow is one thing but being a woman and able to use arcane magic at the same time is something else. And we both know what "something else" is."

Osborn smiled. "So let's get down to business. What is the little bonus you promised me?"

Fashtar opened the briefcase to reveal a lot of well organized cash, all in American dollars and procured a small USB flash drive. "Payment's as normal, but the bonus is what you'd really like, Mr O. It's much like your own experiments with the polymer armor your good doctor "Octopus" created but on a completely different area of focus."

"What is it?"

"It focuses on the human body itself. Using specific transmutation magic that I made myself and enhanced to activate on mind control or be permanent depending on settings as well as implant operations, you could build an army of super-soldiers with all the combat imprints they'll ever need on tactics, strategy and weapons, using grown people as test subjects," said Fashtar whilst Osborn inspected the flash drive because of its simple outlook.

"Nothing on armor and such?" The businessman asked.

"You'll have to make those yourself. I may be generous but not that generous," retaliated the Gith. "Say what you want about me, but I always pay my bills on time."

Osborn tossed the flash drive up in the air a few times. "Same goes for me. Thing is, of course, that I would prefer to be the sole supplier of weapons." He went for the door. "Oh, I have to ask. What's so special with that Miyazaki girl?"

"Miyazaki?" Fashtar raised his one good eyebrow at the curiosity. "Hmm, how do I put this? It's always so difficult to put it so that people would understand..." he muttered to himself whilst pacing his steps back and forward with Osborn watching him. "She's... ooh, how do I put it..."

Then he simply stopped pacing and turned his eye patch to Osborn. "She's the key to my current Plan. That's why I sent you to fetch the Staff. Now I simply will have to rebuild it. It'll take time, but it will be in time for the main event of the Plan."

"So I was just a hired thug to you this time," Osborn said as he realized what was going on. "I like the way you think."

Fashtar faced him fully this time. "Indeed. Sorry for giving you such a low role."

"Don't apologize," said Osborn slowly. "I never do."

_**Back to Hina and co**_

"Ayumu?" Hina asked as she saw her best friend being held by the arm by Boris. She didn't want to believe that Ayumu was here as well, but... it was her form, her voice and her face.

"Hina-san?" She asked her.

"Nishizawa Ayumu? Is that you?" Then she looked at the other girl who seemed rather more composed than the former. "Kasumi Aika? You're here?"

"Ah, Student Council President," the girl answered her. She didn't struggle against the Russian's hold and she merely asked her calmly, "Could you convince this man to let us go? He's good as a guard and all but he's a bit rough."

Hina felt a bit confused at seeing two of her old friends again but she managed to compose herself after a while by sheathing her sword and motioning for Bax to do the same. "Boris. Let them go."

"Um... sure," said the Russian and let the two girls go. He did hesitate but since they spoke Japanese as well, he did so. And almost in an instant, Ayumu was on to Hina.

"Where have you been?" She asked the armored girl. "You've been missing for months! Nagi-chan and the others have been worried. And what's with your outfit? Are you in a movie shoot or something?"

"You're too fast," Hina complained. "Look, I'm sorry I've been missing for so long but I got caught up in a lot of things. Long story but I wanna know how you two got here by yourselves."

("Friends?") Bax asked her.

("Yes. Friends,") replied Hina. "Well? I'm waiting."

"Oh. Right," Ayumu started. "Well, we met each other yesterday or so, talking about where you went and we took a walk in the park..."

"Then we saw this odd light. It was very odd that nobody else noticed it when we did," Aika confirmed for their story. "Curiosity got the better of us and we walked to see what it was."

"It was a large pretty diamond that just lay there by a tree hidden behind bushes," said Ayumu whilst Hina was stomping her foot, suggesting probably that she wasn't believing them. "So," she paused for a gulp. "we picked it up and then a bright flash happened..."

"And then we were here," Aika finished. "We've been here for about a day or so and we haven't seen anybody else we know since. Until now, of course."

Bax was utterly clueless as he didn't know how to Japanese fluently just yet but Hina did at least stop her stomping. She viewed the two girls with disbelief in her eyes, her big Russian companion was stoic as usual in that he could not decide for himself what to do. "Up until these past few months when I did go missing..." The pink haired girl started at first. "...I would not have believed either of you two, even if Ayumu is my friend and Aika-san is a trustworthy vice president of the Council. However, since the two of you are here and didn't get here the same way I did, I guess I got no choice."

Ayumu lightened up with joy and proceeded in great speed to hug her best friend, knocking over them both to the ground. Hina complained that it hurt with the armor on. Aika stretched her hand out to Boris to introduce herself. He returned the gesture. ("Now, may I suggest we get to Huttasa with all haste?") Bax asked them in his own language. ("The longer we delay, the more we are exposed to potential enemies.")

Hina translated his words, albeit roughly. "Oh," said Boris and pointed in a different direction. "You mean like that band of Hobgoblins behind those bushes?"

At mention, a Hobgoblin popped his head out of the mentioned bushes and almost immediately, he received the Russian's fist right in the face, knocking him back unconscious. And then all Hell broke loose between a band of twelve trained soldiers and three combatants protecting two civilians.

Well, you get the picture of how it went.

_**Somewhere among a pile of bones**_

"We... must find her again..." it said as dark energy gathered itself around him and it tried to rise up from its position. "That fool Githyanki will regret not handling us..." its body cracked and strained as he rose, with the dark energy gathering to him from all the corpses and healed him properly. "Ah... yes! Our powers have returned to me again!" it cried out with joy before viewing the battlefield that was now covered with decomposing bodies, human and Githyanki, beasts and his own summoned darkspawn.

He smiled with a truly evil grin to himself and raised his hands, stretching out his power over the bodies. "Arise, my legion of undead," cried out Drinde, bane of the Githyanki. "Your master beckons to you. Rise and serve your one and only master."

Bone cracked and snapped. Limbs that had been stiff days moved again. Weapons were drawn, either lifted from the ground or pulled out of a dead man's body part where it had stuck. It took time but an army of the undead rose up literally from the ground.

"Come, my minions. We have much to do," Drinde called to them. "We must find the girl. Bring her to me alive and unspoiled. Destroy every town in which she may hide.

"Nothing will stop us this time," Drinde said as he left the corpse of that old rotten priest rest in peace. "NOTHING!"

_**Uh oh...**_

Late at night, in Greenwood's, two girls were curious over that letter Osborn had delivered to one of them. The half-drow girl was very anxious to know whom it was that had sent a letter to her roommate.

"Come on, open it, open it," she urged Nodoka as she held it.

"Why are you so anxious about me getting a letter, Ela?" The bookworm asked the girl. "It's like you've never seen one before."

"I get letters weekly from Father all the time, Honya," replied the black-skinned girl. "It's one that's addressed to you that's rare. It's been four years since we enrolled here and not once have you gotten a letter in that time."

"I have gotten a letter," Nodoka defended herself.

"You did?"

"It was from my elder sister. Wished me good luck and told me to hand in there."

Ela looked at her for a brief moment. "You got an elder sister?"

Nodoka groaned at her friend's question. "I was adopted into a noble house shortly before being enrolled here. The family was in need of a wizard and I was a good choice as a daughter and apprentice of the Art. So here I am." That was supposed to be the official story about why Nodoka was at Greenwood's. Fashtar was an old friend of Nodoka's father and she had been sent her by her father to learn the Art and her other siblings were in training of becoming fighters, knights and protectors of the land with the exception of her elder sister who was already a well-established cleric of the ancient god Asgorath. **Technically **speaking, that was true. Nodoka hadn't, in truth (and assumption in that she was adopted shortly before coming here), met any other sibling in Ashracai's family save for Rad'na who was a priestess herself. And Nodoka had never heard of the god Asgorath before. She didn't know what he represented or what side he was on. If it was a male deity.

"Oh yeah, now I recall," said Ela. "Good for you then that master Fashtar is a good friend of your father, then. But... still, it's good to know you actually have a family out there." For a moment there, Nodoka thought that Ela thought herself without one. If so, then she recovered very quickly. "Will you return to them after graduating from here?"

"No, I'll be assigned with a mentor whom I'll be with for about seven years or so before going back. Father wanted me to become the best, no matter the time. So master Fashtar set up a contract in that I'll be studying for fourteen years until I can return home." She gave a small snort before adding, "Some family, huh?"

"I hear some noble houses are like that," said Ela. "But enough about that, time to focus on that letter. Just open the thing."

"Okay, okay." Nodoka finally gave in to the girl's demands and proceeded to open the letter so it wouldn't tear.

A blinding flash occurred and Nodoka dropped the letter to the floor. "Ow, ow, that really hurt my eyes. I need a bowl of water to get the lights out. Ela, could you get me one?" She didn't get a reply from her friend. "Ela?" She asked again. It was odd that she didn't make a noise whilst being blinded. Drow hated bright lights even more than constant sunlight. Nodoka eventually got hold of a towel and used that to clear her eyes. "Ela?"

She saw Ela frozen on the spot. In fact, the whole room was frozen, nothing moved. Not the wind, not the water, not even singular hair strands. Just to be sure, she poked Ela's forehead a few times.

"Never been part of an advanced Time Stop, before?" The voice asked her and Nodoka turned around to view its origin.

"Theodora-sama?" She asked the voluptuous woman that sat on the chair but she noticed several key differences. First off, her hair was pitch-black. Secondly, the eyes were glowing crimson red. Whilst the skin and the horns were similar, the real Theodora would not stoop so low to wear such a ridiculous outfit that would put the one she saw the imperial princess in the first time to shame. It was transparent among many things.

"No, not Theodora-sama," replied the gorgeous woman. "I merely wear her form to make you more comfortable." She rose up from the chair and walked over to the frightened girl. "You're not exactly what I imagined when I was told about you."

"Wha?" was all that the bookworm could get out of herself.

"Oh, I'm confusing you. Poor girl. Allow me. I am Glasya and I was sent to fetch you for a little business deal. Put shortly..." Glasya went in close to whisper in Nodoka's ear about it. "We know about your troubles and your enemies, little Miyazaki Nodoka. And we simply want to help you. If you'd listen to our full proposition."

Nodoka shivered at what she said and she couldn't get Ela to help her out. Perhaps Fashtar-san, if only she could reach him in time. Any other master would do in the school. Although... with the level of the people she usually hanged out with, Glasya was certainly at Fate's level, if not higher. "What kind of proposition is this?" She asked the woman with hesitation clear in the tone.

"I don't know yet. I was merely sent to fetch you for the real man who would offer you it," said Glasya. "Come, take my hand and I'll take you to him." She stretched out her hand for Nodoka to take it and the purple haired girl did so, very much reluctantly. Wondering how Ela would react when she saw an empty room with just her in, but she couldn't think fast enough due to the two of them Disapparating away from the room.

* * *

They Apparated into what could be described as Hell. Fiery pits filled with screams of tormented souls, bellowing laughter of many a great intelligent beast who used the poor souls for their own amusement and ravines of apparent endless depths covered the area, sending more chills down Nodoka's spine more than anything else she had ever seen.

"It's natural to have second thoughts about this," Glasya told her as if everything was normal. "But I'm merely doing what I'm told to do here. You just need to listen to what we have to offer and then you can decide whether or not you'll accept."

"I wanna get away from here," whined the girl in Glasya's arms. The voluptuous woman had basically no idea how to behave here. Her father had never told her what to do when somebody got scared and jumped in your arms. She knew what to do if they were scared, which was to utilize that fear into servitude to her. It was when they jumped into your arms when things get fuzzy. Utilize the fear or "comfort" them? She never could figure out how to do that latter alternative. How about both at the same time?

"Hey..." Glasya told the scared girl in her arms. "I know that you're scared right now, but the sooner we get through with this proposition, the sooner you can get back to your friend. Okay?" It took a few seconds before Nodoka nodded to her slowly. "Good. Now let's go. He may be patient, but I think we're stretching it."

It took some time but the two finally reached a large stronghold that virtually screamed "Fortress of Evil and Dominion of the Legions of Hell" to the bookworm's perspective. She wanted to run away but doing that would only lead her out there to where some demon could snatch her and torment her for all eternity. She didn't know about demons of the world she was in now, but since the one who wanted to see her had not sent a strike force for her, she could see little choice in what to do at this time.

When led into a specific apartment that had a very luxurious outlook to itself, that spelled "comfort" and "serenity" than what the rest of the stronghold did. It wasn't blood red or black in color, it was more of a soft blue with some spots of white in them. It was decorated with nice furniture and soft cushions. The deep and wonderful aroma of tea came to Nodoka's nostrils when she saw a man that resembled Kurt Gödel dressed in a wonderful attire that screamed royalty in design, but it also cried "Ruthless Tyrant" in color.

"I keep this room as a small token of the old times. It's also very appreciative when I have guests over," said the man. He resembled Gödel in appearance but he had horns on his head, with lustrous dark skin and black hair in contrast to what the original Gödel had. A closer look revealed that his attire had black diamonds and fiery rubies that had an unimaginable expense to them. His regal finery seemed modern back home on Earth with red and black as the main themes, though his large coat seemed of medieval times and was made of the finest silk. "Please, have a seat. I had this tea brought in to make you feel more comfortable here." He gestured to the chair opposite of his.

Nodoka sat down, albeit reluctantly. He waved off Glasya and she left the room, leaving the two seated ones alone in the room. "Um..." Nodoka started very nervously. "I'm... not sure what this is all about," she finished whilst he poured her a cup of tea. She took a sip whilst he answered her.

"That is alright, I did not even introduce myself," he said and then cleared his throat. "I mean you no harm at all, to start with. I am Asmodeus, the Supreme Master of the Nine Hells." The tone spoke calmness but the words chosen made her want to run the hell (no pun intended) away from there. "And no, I did not lure you here just so I could have a little plaything from the mortal realm and someone to have excellent tea with." When he put down his cup after a sip, he got serious and scary looking with his already glowing infernal red eyes. "I summoned you here because of the situation you're in."

Nodoka would eep if she could bring herself to, but Asmodeus rose up and drew her attention to a screen that displayed small moving and talking chibi-versions of herself and the those she was friends with on Tu'narath, plus a collection of enemies. "Allow me. I've taken a look into your situation. You face a tremendous task ahead of yourself, facing a High King who has command of a large army and holds sway over the lands of Samasal with an iron fist. To top that off, you'll be facing this Fate Averruncus who is supported by the Lich Queen Vlaakith CLVII and has a standing force of his own. You also need to retrieve the Scepter of Tiamat from Vlaakith as well. Suffice to say... you are in need of help.

"I've seen your current companions and they themselves are not a bad selection as they hold great potential within one another. But here's the question; would that be enough against both factions? Ifrith and Averruncus? And quite possibly, both at the same time?" He asked her. Nodoka thought about it thoroughly and logically speaking... even if she could finish her training properly, what chance would she and her friends have against both Ifrith and Fate at the same time? Rev'keth and Boris might make it since they were trained experts, but the others... Asmodeus was already pushing her into a corner.

"And then there is a Joker in the card game: The figure that calls itself Drinde. He is out to fetch you and use you for something that would devastate everybody. And I **mean** everybody. You, your friends, the Githyanki race as a whole, even Earth and your teacher." That last notion was enough for her to listen to this proposition he had for her. As long as things were kept quiet about this, it was probably okay.

"So... what was your proposition in order to prevent all this?" Nodoka asked, as she realized that she had to walk into the trap until an opportunity to avoid permanent injury arose.

"Simple. I want to help by giving you the means to fight all three threats and emerge victorious," said the Archdevil. "Now, for the whole war, I have taken the necessary steps to..."

Nodoka found a possible loophole. "Hold on a little," she told him. "Before you continue, I'd like to point something out. I am well aware that demons and such like your kin take a heavy price for their services. I'm also aware that for a great service, you have to pay for it with your soul for eternity. If that is the price I'm to pay when I eventually die, then I must decline your offer."

Asmodeus didn't say anything at first for a brief moment. Then he simply smiled to her. "Then I shall simply make a different price for your case. Which I already considered," he countered to her. "To say that you are smart would be very much an understatement and you are right in that it normally costs your soul for a service like mine. But, I would not obtain yours no matter how hard I tried. The question is simple: Why? The answer is also simple: It is too pure. You are too much of a kind person for me to even consider bargaining your soul with. So I decided to not obtain that and walk a different angle with you."

"Heh?" Nodoka found herself stumped by his logic for a moment.

"For the record, that was a well-placed speech you gave me about bargaining with a devil and I will take it into consideration the next time I attempt something like this," he told her as if he had read her mind. "Now, my first offer is very simple. To combat an army, you need an army yourself." He gestured for her to come to the balcony. When she got there, the two Disapparated from there and Apparated at another place, this one a vast charred wasteland where massive battalions of others like him have gathered in front of a pile of gathered rubble upon they both stood. "Therefore, my first offer to you and the simplest is this army of devils. They will serve you to the end of their existences and will obey any orders you give them."

"_Nifla sheyihyeh lanu kesher, im zeh sheyihyeh bashilton,"_ the whole devil army cried out in one voice together, kneeling before the two at the last word they spoke. The two Apparated back to the apartment for the girl to catch her breath.

"That was the first offer I have for you. It's to combat your enemies' forces," Asmodeus told her whilst she went for tea to calm herself down. "I did take several prices into consideration until I found one I think that you could agree upon yourself."

"Did you?" She was starting to see where he was going.

"Very simple. My price for this is **information**. You possess a book that can read minds," he said and confirmed her suspicions. "There are several deities out there who keep things to themselves. Secrets, hidden knowledge and so forth. What I would want you to do is..."

"Work for you to uncover these secrets using my artifact," Nodoka finished for him and he smiled and nodded. "You want me to basically become one of your servants?"

"Not exactly a servant. More a freelance agent," he defended his case. "You won't be treated like one of the souls that become trapped down here. And, furthermore, in order to avoid nasty incidents, we devils do have a court system to assure that if you feel wronged by us, you **can** win your soul back. But you don't have to worry about that."

"You did keep referring to the army as the first offer," the bookworm brought up for him. "There is more to this."

"Ah yes," said the Archdevil. "I give you the army in order to fight the forces of Ifrith, Drinde and Averruncus, **not** the three leaders themselves. For that, I did prepare something else. It may not be to your liking but it will work for certain."

"And that has to do with selling my soul for eternity?"

"Again with the eternity thing," Asmodeus groaned, which for a moment seemed very much out of character for him. "I am not here to cross you. I am offering you the best hand the card game has to offer here. It is up to you on taking it." He continued though with his explanation. "I ask for an even trade here. I'm proposing a "Soul Splice" here, in which you take in the souls of deceased and powerful wizards and magi alongside your own in your body. You will have access to their powers, their knowledge and you will be in complete control of them. They may offer advice only, but you decide what to do. I ought to warn you though, that they offer advice which seems very logical and appropriate at the time."

"I see," Nodoka seemed to understand at last that he was not trying anything against her, even though he had pushed her into a corner where it would be obvious for her to accept his proposition. "But then, there is the price of the even trade to this, isn't there?"

Asmodeus was starting to admire her savvy of bargains with fiends at the rate she was going. "Naturally, it isn't for free and since information would be the price for the army... I suppose that your soul would have to do. But before you try to come to a conclusion on your own, allow me."

"Heh?"

"Whilst your soul would be mine for the time you spend in there, it would not be for eternity. Rather, you would be spending time here for the exact amount of period you are in this Soul Splice," he told her. "To make it even more fair, I'll let you go once your time is up."

"Of course, it's not that simple," she retaliated. "I'll take a guess in that if I spend an hour in this state and if I had seven souls, I'd spend seven hours down here."

"Clever as always," he said with a subtle smile to himself. "Well, that'd be the case."

"One last question; what would you do with my soul if I agreed to this contract?" She asked her as she saw another opening in his trapmaking and decided to make another attempted jump.

Asmodeus didn't seem affected by the question but he took it into consideration. "Hmm... I suppose it would depend on how much time you have spent with the Soul Splice... But I can assure you that I would certainly not attempt anything truly sinister with it."

"Truthfully?" She asked him.

"Of course. I may be the ruler of Hell but it doesn't mean the same that I am not generous from time to time," he told her with kind words.

"You say that, but with those eyes of yours..."

"One should not base trust on appearances, little girl," he cut her short there. "Now, allow me to be clear on this proposition. You'll gain a great army to command and tremendous power at your call for a minimal price, even lower than what it would cost a person. And I do this act because I genuinely do not wish to see everything destroyed by either of the three opponents you have ahead of you. So what do you say? We have a contract? Or not?"

Nodoka was quiet for a very long time. In the meantime, she was thinking. Asmodeus was certainly not one to trust at all since he surely had some trick up his sleeve. One should expect it of a devil like him. Whilst he was truly an evil individual, why would he go this far to aid her cause? So far, he had offered her a huge army and personal power probably above the powers of even the Thousand Master... for information taken from deities and a minimal service time if the Soul Splice was ever used. She'd have to very cautious about using it then.

Still... an army would not fit so badly. Ifrith would have control over a massive army himself, no doubt numbering in the millions if he gathered his full force. Even then... there could be rebels who would join her cause if she asked them. He himself would either be a pushover or an immovable object if it came down between the two of them.

This Drinde person was the one who had cost her her arm and she knew very little about he could do. The last she saw of his host, it was a massive army of... things that did not belong where they were. She didn't get a good look at him if she even saw him but there was little to no reason to assume that he was not harmless. The idea of having an army and personal power was truly starting to sound appealing.

And there was Fate Averruncus. She knew what he could do, he knew what she could do. This contract could give her the edge she needed to defeat him and be rid of him for a long while. Thing was, she didn't know what forces he had to command for himself in comparison to what she had. No doubt she'd see some old faces from the organization. She knew Dynamis had it in for her badly after what she pulled off against him.

But what would her friends say? What would Hina say? Would Negi-sensei approve of this if he ever found out? Okay, he did a bad decision when picking Magia Erebea, but this was worse. Hina would certainly disapprove of this decision, no doubt about that. And what would everybody else say? None of them would probably approve of this.

"I... would accept... if I didn't have to think about what my friends would think," she told him ultimately and rose up. "I thank you for the hospitality, but this is too heavy for me to take on." She gave a small bow and headed for the door. She was however, interrupted in her tracks when Asmodeus spoke up again.

"Is that so? Oh well, too bad. But it gets me wondering, though... what would your friends think when they would get themselves killed by either of your opponents?" That question halted her right away and sent her thoughts down a different path. "No doubt that you'd be able to protect them all if you accepted what I had to offer and the war would end much quicker..."

_Oh no. Oh, **no~**_, Nodoka thought to herself as she imagined the words he would bring up.

"If you don't accept this, that's fine. I never intended to force you into this. But without this little secret between us, who knows how many people would die because of the war? Soldiers don't exactly follow a codex of war laws on Tu'narath, so women and children tend to be fair game for them," he continued and she couldn't stop shivering whilst thinking about the consequences. "And what of your friends? What if they ran into Averruncus and his ilk? What then?"

"...Fate wouldn't attempt killing humans..." she defended that case weakly. "It goes against... his order..."

"Perhaps. But what of Bax, or Rev'keth?" Asmodeus countered her. "Would he consider sparing them?"

Nodoka couldn't take another step forward. The Archdevil was more canny than she expected him to be. He had first lured her into a corner where she had to listen to his proposition and when she saw a chance to get out of that trap, he had another in store for her. This was more thought out than she had anticipated and every step she had taken had only made it worse for her. _This is really, really... so unfair!_ Then she thought of one last thing to assure minimal persecution by his own ilk.

"If..." she started, catching his attention. "If I accepted this contract... wouldn't that give cause for other fiends like yourself to try and bargain with me as well?"

"Oh! I didn't think about that," he said with a tone that suggested honesty. "I'll see what I can do about that."

Nodoka remained silent after that. Then she turned around and walked up to him. And then extended her hand. "There had best not be any fine print about this whole thing. And don't expect me to like this after all."

Asmodeus did not smile and shook her hand on it. "Don't worry. The whole contract is written properly and I will keep my end of the bargain always. All I expect of you is to do the same," he told her.

"...I can work with that," she responded.

"Now..." He stepped away and commenced a spin as two devils appeared behind her. _"Are you READY?"_ He yelled as a chest poofed in with a red glow.

_Are you READY? _The two devils repeated as they grabbed her from behind and put her right hand forward.

_Are you REEEEAAADY? _Asmodeus continued as the chest opened up for him to pluck a ring out of it. _Information center!_

_Information center!_

_My Intelligence Center! _He chanted whilst getting closer to her.

_Our intelligence center!_ The other two and a hidden choir of devils repeated as Nodoka kept struggling against their grip.

_Welcome to our Recruitment Center!_ He continued as he put the ring on her finger. _Can you sense it? We're working, we're working, we're working for you now! I hope you're satisfied!_

As he came onto the final verse, Nodoka herself was caught in a harmless fire and saw that she was beginning to leave this dreadful place. _And now we're done... Go have fun... Now you've made some Friends on the Other... Side~!_

The last thing she heard from him whilst disapparating from the Nine Hells was his own stylish laughter and the choir joining him...

* * *

"What is it? What is it?" Ela asked her as she came to sense in her own room. Nodoka spared a glance at her first before refocusing on the letter. It turned out to be the Contract she had made with Asmodeus just then, written in flawless Latin, telling her the exact details about the contract. Since they were learning Draconic for their magic, Ela couldn't read it.

To spare Ela a wicked tale, Nodoka had to spin yet another lie for her. "It's from Father," she told her. "He's starting to wonder how I'm doing with my studies. Even left a record on what the others are doing right now."

_**Now how does the trio fare with their new companions?**_

"That was... truly exciting," Ayumu said with blank white eyes as they kept on walking, still referring to the hobgoblin ambush.

"I'm sorry you had to see that new side of me, Ayumu," apologized Hina who was walking right beside her and giving some small support with walking forward.

"I was not aware you could throw a punch like that, Boris-san," Aika complimented the big Russian who preferred to keep silent at the moment. He merely nodded to her. "But was it really necessary to do that to those poor people?"

"Aika-san, I told you," said Hina once they reached a river bend which led to the city of Huttasa. "They were not people, they were slavers. And they would have taken us all if we had decided not to fight them off."

"So then, wouldn't killing about three of them attract more of them in order to take revenge?" She asked the armored girl in return.

"What strikes me more surprising is how you two managed to get here in the first place," Hina said. "Physically speaking, it should be impossible."

"Katsura-san, you forget again what we're involved with at the moment," Boris told her and the pink haired girl groaned loudly in annoyance.

"Yes, I know! But there must be some order to it. Even Magic of all things should have rules to obey!"

("Huttasa is just up this ridge,") called Bax to them who was walking several paces ahead of them, probably due to him not able to understand Japanese just yet. ("With any luck, the town lord will welcome weary travelers.")

("Got it,") Hina responded. "We're getting close now."

Boris tried to get some tranquility by watching the river. It made him think of the fight he had with Shirahama Kenichi last year and even though he lost, it was a good fight in his opinion. After all, Shirahama was the only one ever beside his own master to manage a strangulation technique on him. So he had to have respect for the Japanese fighter. He'd certainly go and have a rematch with him once they got home. And after that-

He noticed something floating on the river as it went just around the riverbend. A woven basket, flat and oval in shape. Curiosity got the better of him for a brief moment and he started to get in the water to get the basket. "Boris-san?" He could hear Hina say but he ignored her as he got closer to the basket. As soon as he got to it though, he directed it to the shore. "Boris-san, what is that?"

"I got curious about it, that's all," he replied when he got it and himself out of the freezing water. He did open it and the girls began to blush at the sight of the content. It was a little human baby, sleeping peacefully or at least until it woke up to see them. It giggled and smiled and the girls couldn't help but be playful with it.

For a moment, Boris was remembered that whilst his charge was very tough and a strong person to rely upon, Katsura-san was still a girl.

"Hey, how come a baby was alone in the river?" Ayumu asked out of the blue and they got wondering.

"Now you mention it..." said Hina as she was the one to hold the baby at the moment. "It is strange."

"When was the last time one would hear of a baby floating on a river in a woven basket?" Aika asked the group and they got thinking.

Then something struck Boris in the head. "The only thing I can think of that relates would be that of the prophet Moses when he was but a babe."

That got their attention for a moment. "Wait, wasn't he set adrift on the Nile in order to be saved from the Egyptians?" Ayumu asked them.

"Yeah, he was set on the river in order to escape the killing of Hebrew children..."

"Hold on," Hina interrupted them all when she was connecting dots. "If this child was set on the river that is near Huttasa and Moses was set adrift similarly to escape death, then..." she got shivers and handed the baby over to Aika and ran over to calling distance for their alien companion. "Bax!" The hobgoblin was standing on the ridge and turned around when he heard her. At a distance, she saw that he didn't have the most pleasant expression. "Oh God..."

She began climbing the ridge herself, followed swiftly by the others. As Aika held the baby, she was being supported by Boris to get up. All four of them didn't want to see it happen, but when they got up to stand beside Bax, they beheld a sight that few would prefer to see.

The city of Huttasa, a proud city of humans which always had good relations with its neighbors... had been set ablaze and was under attack by an unknown army...

* * *

**A/N: **_I shall remain unreachable for some time after this. But know this, compare me as scum for what I've written, go read "Niisan" by maneyan first. ALL of it and then see if I'm any worse than that. I will however, continue this story whilst I'll be in hiding. I have my own reasons. But I'll tell you this. As soon as the "Training" arc is over, I will explain Everything why I did all these horrid things. I will give no explanation whatsoever to anyone, Anyone who asks for it. Hate me for what it means, but I'm the author and my word is final._

_I think I am bringing in Marvel characters due to the fact that Overmaster has brought in DC into his fic "Unequally Rational and Emotional" and it seems to have brought tremendous popularity to it. I wonder really if my decision to use Marvel is starting to be such a good idea. I mean, sure it's cool and all and they are only cameos, but I doubt it's turning out to be such a good idea at the moment. I already have Loads and Loads of Characters in effect and it's still growing. It's gonna get worse due to the actual plot but Marvel are not part of the original idea. So why am I bringing them in? Don't worry, so far I have only planned for some villains but no heroes. At all. For me, that could be a good thing._

_As for Ayumu and Aika showing up... Hey, it's "Hayate". Crazy stuff happens to them all the time. I only stopped at those two because the other characters would form an angry mob outside my home. Apparently, they can find out where I live due to them being canon characters. I will do what I can in order to keep them in-character._

_That's all for now. I shall now go barter for my own protection from the angry mobs with my "Friends on the other Side"..._

_**Extra event**_

The first devil pressed the speaker button for the phone and put the handset on the hook. _"I trust things went as you had hoped?"_

"They did, Fashtar," said Asmodeus as he was surrounded by a collection of devils who were part of the deal. "Nodoka accepted our offer of assistance, even though it took a small amount of persuasion."

"_Very well. The price had better not be anything too severe for her to pay,"_ said the Githyanki. _"I am not fond of this deal myself as you no doubt noticed during our last talk."_

"Why, Fashtar," said Asmodeus with a smug on his face. "Could it be that the great wizard and master schemer of the Imperium of Gith is starting to feel... worried over a little human girl? I'm shocked." To that, several devils around him laughed. "Don't worry, my young..." he cleared his throat as to make sure to the other line that he was joking. "...padawan. I have not demanded a huge price of her and to spice it up for her, she'll be free once she leaves the mortal planes."

"_Padawan? Have you been- Eurgh, never mind," _said Fashtar on his line. _"Just do your part of this civil war alongside Nodoka and things should be settled between us."_

"I understand, Fashtar," replied the Archdevil. "But do remember, my friend. Do not forget what lies in store for yourself. She might have gotten off easy because of circumstances but you... my ever loyal servant and apprentice of schemes... need I remind you whom it is you serve despite your own high rank within your empire? Once your plans have come full circle... you're mine."

There was a pause on the line before Fashtar answered. _"Understood, my lord. I shall be yours to command... always."_ And then he hung up on them.

Asmo smiled to himself as he leaned back on his chair. "This telephone is highly useful. Perhaps I should give Nodoka a mobile one so I can contact her about my various jobs for her in the future..."

"Could be arranged, Boss," said one of the imps in the room. "But, um... I really need to ask you something, if I may?"

"What?"

"What was it with all that singing when that human girl was here?" The imp asked his master. Asmodeus looked at him for a few brief seconds before smiling to the imp and then walking out of the room with the same grin to himself. "You know... just for the record, I hate it when he does that, all the time."

A much larger devil patted the imp's head and said, "You're new."


	46. Moving on

**A/N: **_Okay, okay. I admit, some of you probably think I made a bad choice with bringing in our favorite bookworm into servitude with Asmodeus of all people but I have made my choice about it. Now, I do not own the following song. This is performed solely for purposes said below._

* * *

It had been seven long years since they enrolled at Greenwood's together. Many things have happened in that time when they got to be friends with one another.

The first year, they had studied under the Grandmaster herself, learning the cantrips that were necessary to all wizards hoping to live an average day in society. Many new cantrips had been researched by the students of that year, each adding their own flare to everyday life. Ela had contributed with one that turned one's speech to charming kind words. Nodoka added one that allowed one time to think in the midst of a battle.

The second year, they had a field trip to a temple of learning where the students were interacting with learning clerics and experienced ones who taught them the differences between arcane magic and divine. Then Amati thought that he could take on a cleric on his own. Pardon the language, he got his ass handed to him.

The third year, they had been with master Rincewind who taught them how to survive without magic. He himself was never seen with a spellbook and used magical items more than a collection of spells in his head and showed them a variety of things to accomplish, including seven different ways how to fell an orc using only a quarterstaff. The orc was very friendly, for the record.

The fourth year, they were studying under the more advanced masters of the academy, including master Fashtar, who was harsh but good as a teacher. He taught both necromancy and evocation, a school Nodoka did not study, even though he wasn't the designated master for either of those. He was good though to give both her and Ela lessons in speaking Draconic.

It was also the year a whole new concept was introduced to the bookworm's perspective: That Evil and Good sometimes need to work together to achieve a greater goal. Ergo, she was recruited in secret to a certain Archdevil.

In their fifth year, the students were allowed to exit academy grounds without a teacher, provided they're back by at least 11pm. The first obvious thing for some of them to do was simply... to go visit a pub. Nodoka was forced into heaving her roommate (rendered drunk asleep) back and keep off potential stalkers using a stick. Then when an all out assault on two young ladies out at night occurred on them, the Grandmaster came by and helped them out. The bullies were consequently turned into coners.

Their sixth year passed rather surprisingly uneventfully as they were putting more effort into their studies to achieve their final year grades. It turned out that awards were going to be given out for the "best student of stated school" and everyone gave their best at something.

And the final year was drawing to a close with only one significant event happening... the formal. Apparently, most nobles who attended Greenwood's saw the formal as a huge political moment to increase their standing among themselves and with their families. As Nodoka was one (technically speaking), she had to attend. Sadly, Ela was not one, even if they counted her mother's former status. Drow were simply monsters in the other students' opinion. Fortunately, Nodoka "hired" her as an valet for her and got her a pretty dress (taken straight out of Fashtar's pocket, to his chagrin) for her to wear that contrasted her own status as a half-breed. Of course, whilst this move made her unpopular with the other noble students, the masters saw nothing wrong with it, as they saw it as her learning a most important lesson before she had even heard it.

Now, all of their efforts were going to be revealed to them at...

_**Graduation Day...**_

[Okay, I admit, that was pointless.]

The final year students were gathering together in the great auditorium hall where theater plays had been displayed for the students and teachers, showing histories that happened, the tales of the various companions of the masters when they were in their adventuring days and personal exploration. They had found Fashtar's the most exciting at times since he was the one away the most among them and always had a tale of his own past adventures. Nodoka's personal favorite of the gith (even though he was the one who abducted her) was "The Ride through the Astral Sea with the Dwarves." It was a comedy.

Now though, it was empty and everybody were expecting something to happen. With so much chatter, several suggestions came up as a play would be shown to them, most likely the "Blackstaff's Exploits as a Traveler" or the ever popular "Demon Stone", or maybe a band of professional musicians playing a song.

"What do you think?" Ela asked Nodoka, as they sat next to each other on the second row.

"I don't know," the bookworm's answer was. "I definitely don't see anything to suggest a play or such so we probably won't have any of that."

"Always so observative," said the half-drow girl. "But that's what I'd expect seeing in a diviner."

True, Nodoka's chosen school was Divination with Evocation barred for her. In a sense, she didn't need to learn that school since she had studied the evocations of her homeworld. Many looked down on her for choosing Divination instead of something like Abjuration or Illusion, though few others followed the same path. The Grandmaster herself was one, too.

Finally, the lights dimmed and everybody quieted down. Small whispers were heard but nothing too loud. Music started with a flute and then a drum, resulting in a theme they haven't heard before whilst a light emerged on the stage. It was a whirling color-shifting light that flew around and tried to swallow itself as the students watched. When it did, a flash appeared and revealed an overview of the lands they lived in and a strong voice was heard.

_When the Earth was young,_

_And the air was sweet_

_and the mountains kissed the sky_

_In the far beyond, with its many paths_

_Man and deities lived side by side_

As the voice sang that, visions of mortal races walking alongside glowing perfect beings to indicate they were deities revealed themselves to the students, showing a clear friendship between them.

_The pretty wisdom does not come without learning_

_And revision not only with our eyes_

_We can think that we see_

_Truly see all around us_

_But when we look,_

_Do we see with open minds?_

The course took a more swift turn and the students were all captivated by the spectacle as they suddenly found themselves aboard a great ship with several small glowing orbs floating amongst them and the ship was steering itself on a rough river, yet none was thrown about as they knew it was an illusion for them.

_Great Spirits of all who lived before_

_Take our hands and lead us_

_Fill our hearts and souls with all you know_

As the song continued, one of the orbs approached Nodoka and took the form of someone she knew from her real home. Her mother, who hugged her and in a mental voice told the bookworm, _"Take heart in the words you hear now."_

_The key to understanding_

_Is to see through others' eyes_

_Find a way to help us_

_See from all sides_

_Truly see from all sides_

Then the other students disappeared from her, and Nodoka found herself standing in front of a large brutal looking beast, a Grey Render which she once saw a depiction of in a book she read in the library. It was huge despite what she had imagined it to be in real life. It was also very menacing to her.

_Teach our children to look deeper than the surface_

_See the world through another's eyes_

Hearing that, her belief in good fortune and that everything would turn out well made her walk forward to try and pet the Render on its head. Much to her surprise, it lowered its head to let her. She allowed herself a smile and then the Render turned to mist.

_For to be blind me on yourself_

_Is to look but not see it_

_Knowing much is not enough to the wise_

The mist revealed her schoolmates again and they found themselves on an ice covered lake where massive beasts swam beneath the ice and large animals also walked on the ice through and around the students.

_To see the wonder in all we've been given_

_In a world that's not always as it seems_

_On the path that we choose_

_Turn every corner_

_Follow up, for another begins_

They now saw a large open plain that showed them many free animals gathering alongside the druids and rangers who respected the great strengths and weaknesses of the beasts. The students witnessed as a druid planted his staff down the earth and when she retracted it, a most magnificent tree grew up instantly and its fruit matured fast enough to eat.

_Great Spirits of all who lived before_

_Take our hands and lead us_

_Fill our hearts and souls with all you know_

_The key to understanding_

_is to see through others' eyes_

_Find a way to help us_

_See through all sides_

_Truly see from all sides_

Everything went black again and the graduates found themselves back in the auditorium again with a select few of them having an item in their hands. Ela found herself wielding a staff and Nodoka held a chest in her hands. A voice told her to open it and she felt nearly overjoyed when she found that it was all her old gear that she thought lost at the mountain among the Illithids; her artifact card, the Comptina Daemonia, her ring foci and her telekinetic combat knife. Her sword was not there as that Kas-far creature had used it as the focus of his new mobile body.

On the stage, circles of power emanated in a circle of themselves. The same voice came to her head and Ela probably heard it too, and so did the rest of the students who had a specific item. They all moved to the stage and stepped on to a circle of power each. Some circles would glow if a student stepped on to them and some would not. Those who didn't get a glowing circle tried to switch places with each other until they got one that did. Eventually, they all stood in a circle with Ela standing in the middle surrounded by them.

Nodoka felt like adding a little something as the other items began to glow softly whilst the Art around them swirled them. As she didn't have an item that glowed, she added her artifact instead by muttering "Adeat," and as it appeared, the singing voice came again.

_Great Spirits of all who lived before_

_Take our hands and lead us_

_Fill our hearts and souls with all you know_

_The key to understanding_

_is to see through others' eyes_

_Find a way to help us_

_See through all sides_

_Truly see from all sides_

_See from all Sides!_

The music died away at last and so did the swirl of magic weave to reveal a line of the masters who taught them all, with the Grandmaster standing about two paces ahead of the line. Fashtar, Rincewind and many others saw them with prideful eyes. And the Grandmaster looked at them with deep pearls of wisdom.

"Today..." she started, "I see no novices in here in front of me." She walked alongside each of them as she spoke, "I see students of the Art that have succeeded well in their pursuit of achieving power, whether it be through personal," she put a shoulder on Amati, who had gone the path of the evoker. "influential..." she walked up to Brocca Bedlam, an enchanter who went in the same class as Nodoka and Ela. "...or knowledge." She put her hand on Nodoka this time and had a look at her book. "Tell me about this thing later, okay?" She whispered in the bookworm's ear before walking back to the line of the masters. "But even though you have mastered this school of troubles," she joked and several sniggered. "You are not masters of the Art just yet. I said I see no novices. Instead, I see apprentices.

"You shall be assigned to a mentor from now on and they will decide when you have fully finished your training. To help you find one, Masters Rincewind, Fashtar and Iscon has contacted many wizards for each of you, several of them used to study here." She waved hand over the masters. "Now, the masters will award those who have exceeded all who strove to become the finest students of this year."

Iscon, master of Transmutation stepped forward first and read aloud from a piece of paper. "Best transmuter, Alhou Veilfinder." The mentioned student on the circle stepped forward as applause came for him. He received a golden badge that looked like a silhouetted figure that had different limbs and wings.

Then Kyndy, master of Conjuration stepped forward. "Best conjurer, Jeriel Siregar." Siregar came forward and received a badge that displayed a summoning circle they had used for the past seven years. Again applause came.

Rhian, master of Abjuration came forth and announced her best student. "Best abjurer, Signi Amberreaper." Signi stepped and received her badge that displayed a shield. They applauded for her as well whilst she returned to her circle of power.

Drake Flair, master of Divination stepped forward with a badge that resembled a crystal ball in the palm of a hand. "Best diviner, Nodoka Miyazaki." The applause came to the bookworm as she stepped and accepted the badge and then walked back to her circle. Ela gave her a thumps up.

Montige Rivergale, master of Enchantment walked forth and announced his best student. "Best enchanter, Brocca Bedlam." Brocca stepped forward and took his badge that showed a head that portrayed some form of mental magic. Rivergale must have had difficulty to settle on a design that would fit for an enchanter. As Brocca walked back to his circle, he spared a small wave to Nodoka. She figured out a while back that he had a crush on her, even though she couldn't return it. They were of different status altogether in the eyes of the academy. She'd have to have a talk with him about it. Plus, he was only nine they started the year together so she felt a bit guilty over him being together with her.

Liona, the actual master of Necromancy stepped forward with a badge that resembled a skull. "Best necromancer, Neissa Ravenclaw." Neissa stepped forward and accepted the badge with pride and walked back as the applause continued. There was a distinct pattern; only those students who stood in the circles were being anointed the best students. Nodoka figured out Ela's position as she was standing in the middle.

Cheeli Noblewolf, master of Evocation stepped forth with a square badge that had lightning, fire, ice and sonic and announced her pupil. "Best evoker, Furor Amati." Amati stepped forward and took his badge. He spared a sneer at Nodoka. The two of them had never gotten along very well in their time at the school but he hadn't tried anything serious against her.

This time two masters, Rincewind and Rhysole Rainqueen in her native elven tongue stepped forward. "Best illusionist, Jasmine Mist." Jasmine accepted her badge with joy and gave a wave to Nodoka as well. She was an "on/off" friend to them and had showed both her and Ela a few illusion tricks. Rincewind merely handed each of the award winners (so far) a specific item to signify their excellence within their chosen school. Nodoka, for example received a small amulet, and Jasmine was given a cloak of invisibility.

Fashtar eventually stepped forth and he announced the best universal student, since that was his area. "Best universal mage, Elacia Belmere." The applause went high this time and the half-drow gladly took her badge, an eight pointed star that symbolized all the eight schools together. Then she received a staff from Rincewind and went back to her circle.

"Congratulations to you, all," called the Grandmaster and raised three platforms, much like an athletic sports event when the three greatest winners were being annointed. "And now, we introduce a new event. From his travels, master Fashtar came across a specific contest in which they award the three best in order. This time, we intend to do the same. Master Fashtar, if you would like the honors of appointing the three best students we've had this year."

She stepped back and allowed the gith to take her place. "Before I start, I'd like to make it known that it was the Grandmaster who appointed these students to be the best after reviewing their grades, behavior and outlook on the life here." He brought out a scroll and read aloud from it, "The third best student... with an average grade of 91.36%... Jeriel Siregar." the applause went up for him as he walked up and accepted his medallion made out of bronze. After Fashtar made him stand on the lowest platform, he continued. "Second best student... with an average grade of 94.12%... Elacia Belmere." This time, the students rose up to applaud the girl as she felt overjoyed and was awarded a silver medallion and placed herself on the second platform, only slightly higher than Siregar's. "And the final student, the finest of this year... with an average grade of 98.74%... Nodoka Miyazaki."

The applause roared to violent life as the bookworm took in that information. She was standing there for a few seconds until Jasmine gave her a push to get going. Accepting her gold medallion, she placed herself on the top platform, getting a handshake from Siregar and a knuckle scratch on the head from Ela.

* * *

Outside on the school grounds, the students were all seeing their families who had gathered outside to congratulate them for the efforts they made. Some, however, were disappointed in that they were not appointed best student in at least one subject. Ela and Nodoka were seeing the former's father Fyodor together, a big strong man who had aged well into his fifties already. It made the bookworm wonder just how old her friend was in comparison to her.

"Top students, both of you?" he asked and they smiled. "Well, it doesn't matter to me whom got up the highest. I'm sure that your father would be proud of you as well, little Honya, was it?"

"It's just a nickname, sir," said Nodoka in her defense. "But I would prefer if Ela had won the title instead of me, though."

**DONK!**

"Ow!" Exclaimed the bookworm as her friend hit her on the head with a very crude handchop.

"Do not belittle yourself, Nodoka." The half-drow girl turned on her and looked at the purple haired girl in the eye. "You don't get anywhere without ambition for yourself. It's great to be humble but when you need power to protect others as you "preached" in school all these years, then where is the ambition to gain that power?"

"Must you hit me to make that point, Ela?" she asked the girl.

"Apparently, I needed to," replied Ela before they saw a familiar face sitting on a bench not far from them. Fashtar had packed for another long journey, so he probably would not return to Greenwood's Academy for some time. He was also surrounded by a variety of people, one a short drow with a great hat, another a large man with a nasty looking scar on his face, probably from the Northern realms, the third they spotted was a dwarf and so on and so forth. "Hey, where's he going this time?"

"I don't know," said Nodoka. "Um, Mr. Fyodor, is it okay that we go see someone? It seems urgent."

"It is fine," beamed Fyodor. "You need to get to know your mentors, anyway. I'll see you once your training is complete, Ela." The two girls smiled and walked.

"Love you, Dad," called Ela. "Do you think it's okay to leave it at that?"

"He understands. And he's right, we need these mentors," Nodoka replied as they walked on. "Though... I really need to ask."

"Hm?"

"How old are you, really?"

"Oh, about 38, now." That answer made Nodoka freeze up for a brief moment and stop walking. Ela stopped as well to explain, "Drow are elves too, you know. Elves mature slower than humans and live up to nine centuries. As a half-elf, I'll be lucky to see two-hundred and forty years myself. Though there have been major exceptions."

"Yes, yes," Nodoka said and continued walking while recalling the great Elminster who lived up to being twelve-hundred years old and was alive to this day, despite being a human. "I know."

"Know what?" They both heard as they realized they had walked up to Fashtar.

"Oh, nothing too important, Master Fashtar," said Ela in reply.

"Stop it, I'm no longer your master. Out here and since you've graduated, it's simply Fashtar." The gith rose up. "Girls, I'd like you to meet my current accomplices; Thorgar the Giantson," he referred to the tall human who grunted and nodded at them. "Jarlaxle, my scout, second-in-command, dealer and crowd-charmer when he feels like it..."

"Pleasure to meet you, ladies," The bald drow tipped his hat to them and they saw he had a simple black eye patch over his left eye. "I hope you liked that song I sang for the graduation."

Fashtar raised an eyebrow at him and introduced the rest of the group, Gorim the dwarf, Huelun the female ranger and the gnome mechanic nicknamed "Nailbrain". "And to confirm it, Jarlaxle was the singer of that song. My pick."

"Was it?" Ela asked him and then Nodoka facepalmed.

"Oh, now I remember that one. It's from my home, a song that tells a story about a young boy who chose a different path to become a man." She was of course, referring to the Disney movie "Brother Bear" that had come out the month before the nightmares came to her. "But it was different from when I heard it."

Fashtar smiled as she realized its origin. "The one you heard in the auditorium was the original song. You simply heard its other version. But the one we chose had a meaning to it. Like it said, "the key to understanding is to see through others' eyes" is a lesson that you should take to yourselves. Don't judge with your own eyes, but learn from your surroundings and the people that live there before making a judgment. That is how one could live the way of a wizard, being open-minded but at the same time – being on the side with the facts." To that, he received his own little applause from the group.

"Now, I understand that you two need to get yourselves a mentor, each." As they nodded to him, he went over to a pair of cages. "First of all though, I have a few things for you." He opened the first cage before adding, "This one is for Belmere. I hope you'll like this familiar." he gave Ela a black and white housecat with feathered wings. And the half-drow girl nearly squealed on the spot.

"What is this thing? It's so cute," she asked.

"A tressym," answered Fashtar. "Magical beasts with high intelligence, enough to speak common language." The tressym merely stroked its face against Ela's and purred. "Seems he likes you. Sadly, though, I could only get one but I got something else that could go a long way as a familiar for wizards." He opened the other cage and picked out an animal that resembled a badger which at the same time wasn't a badger, and handed it over to Nodoka.

"Is this a badger?" she asked as she inspected the furry thing.

"Honey Badger to be precise," answered the gith. "You're well familiar with animals of your own home so I figured this little fellow could help protect you alongside your friends. And don't you doubt his abilities."

Nodoka stroked his head for a moment before remembering something about honey badgers. "How did you-"

"Don't ask," Thorgar told her whilst shuddering. "Please." And the bookworm's common sense made her realize what those scars were left by.

"Don't worry, he's tame now. And yours." Fashtar went to get something out of his book bag as well for them. "Here. A good wizard always has a decent spellbook," he told them whilst handing them each a book covered with dragon scales and paged with actual paper. Most of the books they read in school had animal skin. "I put them together myself."

"Let me guess," Ela said, idly browsing through the pages to view the spells he had put in. "Figured we need them?"

"Always have something prepared," he replied silently. "And speaking of mentors, I did find one for you, Belmere." He produced a scroll and handed it to her. "She's a well established wizard in Silverymoon. I've already sent letters to inform them that you're coming and she accepted you before that. Good luck, Elacia." He said that whilst putting a hand on the girl.

She gave him a big hug before saying, "Best. Master. Ever." Then she let go and turned to her best friend. " I guess we won't be seeing each other again for some time. Does this mean goodbye?"

Nodoka only shook her head. "Friends never say goodbye."

"See you later, then?" Ela asked and reached out with her hand. Honya took it.

"I'll find you once my training is complete." With those words in heart, Ela wondered off to find some way to get to Silverymoon with her tressym familiar, leaving Nodoka alone with the gith and his mercs. "So... what am I going to do now?" She asked Fashtar. "I was gonna get a field training for seven years, wasn't I?"

"That's true..." Fashtar said with his one good eye closed. "I do need to head out somewhere private before we can set off to find your mentor, though." He walked up to the wall and climbed it. "I sent letters to scores of wizards who could take you in as an apprentice, a week before the graduation."

A week was plenty of time to reply to a letter for those wizards no doubt, Nodoka thought. It seemed odd that no one would take her in. "Did anybody reply in that time?"

He didn't bother looking at her but the tone in which he replied didn't suggest it was the kind of answer she was hoping for. "Just one." And then he teleported away from there.

"I predict that you are likely to end up in a place where evil reigns supreme," said Jarlaxle from behind her. "And that you will likely either rise like a dragon ascending to the heavens, or fall beneath the pressure of its society."

The bookworm blinked at the drow for a brief moment. "You're starting to sound like master Flair when he came into class drunk after Mist played a prank on him," she told him. He merely gave a smile.

"Some diviners tend to be like that," he countered. "Some go mad after looking into the future or... seeing something they shouldn't have."

"Isn't that usually the same?"

"Not when you stop and think about it for a moment," he told her. After a short while, a well familiar image came to her head and she blushed so badly that her honey badger familiar squealed to get out of her grip.

"Jarlaxle, did you come here for the sake of the money we were promised, or just to charm ladies fresh out of school?" Huelun asked the drow.

The golden eyed dark elf merely looked at the older woman for a brief moment before replying, "I don't understand the question."

* * *

Meanwhile, Fashtar flew over a desert towards a sole tower that was the only landmark that could be seen for miles around. The tower was said to be the top of an ancient library palace that once stood in the middle of the desert, but had sunk after centuries of sandstorms. Fortunately, expeditions (the ones successful anyway) had revealed that the library itself was not destroyed as its architect was brilliant in making sure that the brick and mortar would not fall to the ravages of time.

Scholars had come here and sought knowledge and donating books and scrolls here since it was rediscovered and this time, Fashtar was no exception. He had brought with him a copy of a book many didn't know existed, in return for something he needed. Hopefully, the librarian was in a good mood.

As he entered the tower and descended into the great library, he felt more and more insecure about if this was a good idea. For as long as anyone could remember, the librarian frowned heavily on anyone coming to seek knowledge of warfare, tactics and so forth. Its guardian golems had thrown them out the first two times and locked them away in the deep dungeons the third, so they could never bother the world.

"Who enters the Library and for what purpose?" A deep booming voice asked and Fashtar came face to face with a man that gleamed with golden hair and red eyes and colorful regal clothing. Through the illusion, the gith knew he was standing face to face with a gold dragon. Even at full power, Fashtar would be sent away packing by the magical beast.

"One who would like a trade," he told the dragon. "I come to take a book and I donate a book to have the library keep an even score. The book I seek shall be returned once I am complete with my current task."

"And what book do you seek?" the dragon asked him.

"A book that holds information regarding the Old Staff," Fashtar answered truthfully and produced the case Osborn gave him three years ago. "It has been broken and I seek to restore it to its former glory. If you were to lend me that book, I could complete it much faster and more accurately."

The gold dragon viewed him with suspicion and the gith was not surprised. "Tell me, for what purpose do you seek to restore the Old Staff?"

"Nothing malign," replied Fashtar. The dragon locked eyes with his own good remaining one and then nodded.

"Your eye tell the truth. And what book have you come to donate to the Library of the Dunes?"

He retrieved it from his book bag and held it out for the dragon to view. "The recorded history of my kind, _Myth and Origins of the Githyanki, Volume I."_

"How exquisite," the gold dragon said and took the book. "This way, please. The books regarding artifacts are in a restricted section which I keep well guarded, so you will have to wait outside while I retrieve it for you."

Fashtar nodded in acceptance and followed the dragon to where his own quest would begin.

_**Outside of the Sphere**_

("This way, everyone,") Bax called to the band of refugees they had managed to save the night before. Bax had almost vouched against it but Hina was adamant in that they could at least try to save some people from the ruins of Huttasa. Sadly, they could not reach Sverker and he was most likely dead.

Out of some thirty thousand inhabitants of the city, they had only saved about a hundred of them, including weary and wounded soldiers, old men, women and children. Enough to form a small caravan. Food was scarce and they were all scared that their assailants could come and jump them. There were only about two squads of soldiers, eight in each, which was not enough to guard all the refugees, and then there were only three from the Warrior's Guild in Huttasa, among them master Brosa. Nevertheless, Hina made a good effort to get them all into safe land. The closest human country on their maps was Kalamar, Bax didn't want to cross into that land but Hina was determined to see them all through safely so he had to comply reluctantly. But the closer they got to Kalamar's borders, the bigger shivers he got down his spine. And worse, he had to translate for her.

Boris had been told to keep Ayumu and Aika safe somewhere in the middle and the two girls had taken up the basic job of keeping everybody fed. None of the soldiers tried anything on them, they were just too tired and too thankful to be in the mood for making moves at lovely girls. Besides, they didn't want to mess with the big muscular man that guarded them. Too risky.

By the time they had crossed into the Kalamar border, they were on their own for the first few hours after a whole night of marching and avoiding any potential danger to the band of refugees. By the time they reached a river which according to the maps led to a small town called Rosaleta (seriously), they heard the clamping of fast galloping elks.

Turned out to be a band of armored thugs by the looks of it. They rode in hard on the refugees and they didn't seem eager to welcome them. Those who didn't have arms and were sick rushed to the rear while Brosa and Hina rushed up to the front to confront them. Bax went behind their lines and readied a potion that he had withheld since the disastrous battle. It was an explosive which reacted to water. When he threw it, it went up in a whoosh of bright light and fire and scared the elks to a halt.

"What's the meaning of this?" Hina demanded of them through a translator, ergo Bax who knew very basic Japanese at this point. Brosa demanded the same in the native tongue.

The leader of the pack of thugs rode forward and spoke in the native tongue, ("We received word of an invasion force marching from Huttasa. As protectors of our realm, we came to thwart it.")

("What invasion?") the old man Brosa questioned. ("We're refugees fleeing from Huttasa's destruction by an unknown assailant. We came here in order to get a new home.")

("I was not told,") replied the armored leader. ("All we got was that soldiers were coming. But now that I see a different thing...") He said and dismounted as did a few of his men. ("...You don't mind if we help ourselves to your goods, do you?") To that, his men walked right past the soldiers, even pushed them aside to get to the people carrying goods and just taking it from them. ("If you want protection, you need to pay a toll for it. That's how things go in this country.")

("You can't be serious,") said Brosa in an angry tone. ("This is an outrage!") Before the guild master could try something though, the leader pulled a sword on him.

("You don't understand, old man. This is my land, my country. I get to do whatever I want and no one tells me what to do as long as we're in these borders.") Once he said that, a wooden sword clanged down on his and then directed at him. A pink haired girl in black armor brandished a wooden sword at him and with eyes a feline would sport when angry.

"I can't let you do that," she said in a language he didn't understand but he could understand the tone of what she said.

("Don't go waving that stick around, girl,") He told the girl as if she was holding a toy. He tried to brush it off but the instant she moved it against his throat after he had removed it made him realize that she was challenging him. This time, he locked eyes with her with his azure blue eyes. ("You certain you want to go down that road?")

Understanding a few of the words he said, Hina nodded at him. ("Boys!") he called and they saw him. ("Showtime.") The moment he said that, they walked away back to their mounts to form a half circle on their side of the flowing shallow water. The soldiers from Huttasa formed theirs as the two champions took their positions opposite of each other.

It was now that Hina could have a proper look at him. He wore heavy mail armor underneath a coat of bronze plates sewn onto leather. He also had two pauldrons that covered his shoulders. His shield was decorated with an indented line dividing two areas, one small at the top and a large down below the line, the large being red and the upper was purple and the red background had a fasces as its heraldry, with a label on the purple background, suggesting he was first-born. The best equivalent of someone who would wear something like that would be a nobleman who had land. A knight, she thought. Knights had been trained from childhood to be fighting machines on the battlefield and this man has relied on his strength and skill in order to get what he wants. And he didn't care if anybody on either his side or the enemy's got hurt.

Plus, the fact that he was looking at her in a lecherous way made her more determined to put him in his place. So she made the first move by a feint step.

He took the bait and raised his shield first in belief that she was to strike, but she stepped to the side and hit him on the back to make him stumble. It failed as she hit heavy armor in comparison to what samurai used to wear so he merely turned around and swung his sword in retaliation against her. She stepped back and he seized the chance to press the assault. This time, on the other hand, Hina stepped towards him after his calculation of where she would be and got in a hit on his sword arm in an attempt to disarm him and another on his forehead, making her opponent stumble backward.

Resuming her position, Hina pressed on, not allowing him to strike back. His bonus was his shield so she reminded him constantly exactly why that is a lucky thing for him by bashing at it whenever she struck and then retreated for about half a second before striking again. But she couldn't hurt him through that armor, a drawback she considered heavily. Fortunately, she didn't need to make him bleed. So she stopped attacking for a moment and withdrew for a small distance between the two.

Thinking he has a chance, the leader of the thugs moved forward and tried a thrust at her with his sword. He had dropped his shield in that charge so he couldn't stop himself the instant she deflected his blade and in the same movement, bashed her wooden sword against his forehead. Son of a bitch (apologies, lady) forgot his helmet. Meaning he lost his balance at last and fell bottom down first into the flowing water.

"My win," said Hina and sheathed Masamune back where it were supposed to go when out of combat and walked back to her companions, who had watched the whole spectacle. ("We ought go,") she told Brosa in the language quite roughly but understandable at least. He nodded in return and told the rest of the refugees that they should move on.

"Hina, that was amazing!" Ayumu praised her friend. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"It's only Kendo," the pink haired girl replied. "I've been doing it for a good while back home." The baby squealed with delight in Aika's arms and Hina couldn't help but smile and poke at the baby with her finger.

"Good and all, but should we do from-" Boris said at first but was cut off from the sight behind Hina, as the leader of the thugs pulled a dagger on her and tried to stab the girl. On sheer instinct, in two seconds flat even, Boris had pulled the pink haired girl aside, blocked the thug's dagger and then jabbed a fist hard down on his throat.

He fell over completely this time into the water and the elks reeled back. The other thugs stepped back in shock and the moment they saw the angry face of the big Russian... they mounted up and hightailed it out of there, leaving the refugees alone on the river. "...I'm starting to wish that could have gone better," Boris said after a while.

"Yeah," said Hina. "It could have. But thanks. I doubt I'd be able to avoid his attack there. Uh oh, there, there now." She was of course, turning her attention to the baby that had started to cry because of the sudden roughness. Boris was starting to feel a bit guilty about that, but it was an emergency. The thug had pulled a dagger to kill Hina, to make sure nobody would truly believe the story that he, a nobleman in heavy armor and "the best fighter in the land"... was beaten by a young girl in black armor wearing a wooden stick. Had Boris been the one to fight him, he would have let it slip pass but not with her.

"What should we do about him?" Aika asked referring to the unconscious knight that seemed very much out of it. "We can't just leave him here, can we?"

"Good point," Boris replied and walked over to him to see if he could be woken up. The first thing he saw though, were a pair of glassed eyes. Not reacting to any light or so. The big Russian suddenly felt a twinge of what he might have done and spared a glance at the girls and Bax before thoroughly starting to examine the man.

"Something the matter?" Hina asked him while he checked first his wrist for anything there. Nothing. Just to be extra certain, and much to the subtle horror of the girls and the people around him, he checked the throat for a pulse. For a few seconds, things were very quiet.

Then he turned around and said to Hina, "I went a bit too far in punching him."

They recoiled in horror and Boris stepped away from the body. For the first time ever since he had received training in YOMI, he felt the guilt of having killed somebody with his bare hands. The other refugees had more mixed reactions. The women and children looked at him with fear in general whilst the soldiers seemed to have an expression that said "You did good but you could have done better". Brosa merely shrugged and went to pick up the shield to have a look at that. His expression went sour once he recognized its heraldry.

("This is really not good.") The tone in which he spoke caught everybody's attention. He held up the shield for them to see. ("This man was the crown prince of Kalamar. His thugs realized that with this, we could all get killed.")

"Prince!" Hina exclaimed and all their faces went pale with distraught and horror yet again. The refugees started shrieking and were more than willing to take their chances back in Huttasa. At seeing the chaos, Hina did feel that she had to do something... again. "Wait, wait everybody!" She yelled in Japanese and some of them listened. "Brosa-san. Bax." She gestured with her hands that they needed to talk. Brosa barked orders to the soldiers to make sure nobody made a run for it and then he and the hobgoblin walked with her aside so they could discuss things.

("We can't leave this,") She said very roughly but she was getting the hang of the language.

("Agreed.") Brosa looked over at the band of refugees and Hina's little group. ("But if we go to Rosaleta, we'd be accused of murdering their heir apparent.")

("And if we don't, they'd send an army after us,") said Bax. ("I don't mean to sound selfish, but I'm a hobgoblin. How do you expect me to walk right into a Kalamaran town?")

("My concerns are for the people of Huttasa, or what's left of it,") Brosa told them. ("I'll take them to town. Nothing personal, but you're not part of the city's inhabitants.")

("Right then.") Hina looked to her friends and the dead body. ("We bury. Split up after that.")

Bax nodded to her. ("Good. We'll bury the prince and then we go separate ways after that. You can claim truthfully that the prince's killer disappeared into the wild countries. That should discourage them from pursuing us.")

Brosa looked at the two of them. ("And just where will you actually go?")

("I know of a sanctuary about four days from here. Two if we travel during the night. I saved it once from a band of gith raiders about four years ago. With any luck, they'll take us in,") replied the hobgoblin. ("I'm not up for traveling there through wild territory, but it's either that or facing a patrol of Kalamaran soldiers.")

"Fine." Hina turned to the old guildmaster. ("We be okay. Just go.")

Brosa very reluctantly agreed to this plan and went to tell the refugees. Bax and Hina stared at each other for a moment before heading back to the others.

They buried the prince in a hole they dug themselves by the riverbank, leaving his shield on top of it for everybody who passed by to know who it was. If soldiers from Kalamar would come by, they would see for certain that the refugees were telling the truth. For the kingdom of Kalamar, the grave marked one thing: _"Here lies Balamir, prince of Kalamar, first son of Belemerot, King of Kalamar, descendant of Kabori, uniter and founder of Kalamar."_

The man who killed him, and his friends headed in a completely different direction than that of the refugees, who walked to Rosaleta to explain their situation. If gods had any mercy, they would see each other again within the year. If they have mercy.

_**Somewhere else at the time**_

"How come we had to leave the girls alone back at the camp?" Raydan asked the gith as the two of them were paired up to hunt alongside the others. Raydan was using a bow and arrow whilst Rev'keth used javelins.

"Raydan, we've been through this already," said the knight. "They can't speak the native language from around here so it'd be quite disastrous if you were paired up with Ookouchi and you wouldn't understand one another." It happened on occasion that the mercenary band needed to hunt for food when they didn't buy from villages or towns. Well, when they weren't thirsty for battle.

"Well, I don't think it would be much of a bother." The young human checked the surroundings of them with his eyes and ears and his trusted composite bow, arrow on the notch with three spares in his hand as well. "Akira and I could get along well, I think. If you'd bother to leave us alone, once in a while."

"Oh sure, no problem at all." The githyanki jumped up on a log to try and spot something. "Leave two young people together, who have no way of communicating with each other normally, and things would get smashing. That would really break the ice."

Raydan had a frown on his face. "You don't sound too friendly with humans, do you?"

Rev'keth stayed silent for a beat before replying, "I have good reason. Humans have always attacked my people simply because we're "not human". That we do not deserve this world and we should all die. Hell, I even got attacked in the street once for no genuinely good reason. All they claimed when the city guard came was that I was a Yanki." The gith dropped his javelin for a moment and looked down on the ground. "We're being assailed by your kind all the time and simply because we're not like you. And then I got assigned to this post, to guard the Witch and her friends. Orders handed directly from the Emperor, can you believe that?" Rev'keth laughed a little. "I didn't want this post to begin with and yet here I am, getting alongside humans. That's irony for you."

"...I think you're okay for a Yanki," said Raydan after a while.

The githyanki turned around and looked at his companion. "Really?"

Raydan spared a look at the sun as there was nothing nearby as they could hear. "You've held yourself quite well despite your history with humans. You see them as foes, but also as friends. You could have always said no to the Emperor if you didn't think that getting along with humans was worth the effort. I know I didn't expect things to get this big when I joined you guys." He took a seat on the log. "We may not be alike, you and I, but my father had this saying; "As long as we can negotiate, we can be allies." It made him unpopular with others, sure... but he didn't give up on it. He used it to get many advantages in politics for our family and even though I don't do that, I live by that saying."

The githyanki stared at the young human for a while before snorting to himself. "That's good to hear. I'd be sure to remember that one." Then something struck him as he returned to his javelins. "Wait a minute... politics... you're a noble?"

"Wha- did I say that? I didn't say I was a noble," Raydan defended himself.

"No, but you said "politics". Last I checked, commoners and middle class people don't do that," countered Rev'keth. "Only blue blooded people deal with that. And now my telepathy is picking up confirmation... You are a nobleman, Raydan, son of Bryce." He turned away for a moment. "I'd figure that there was something to your ancestor Diorik. You can't just slay a dragon and remain middle class."

"Er..." The human found no words to hide himself behind, though he was wishing that High King Rufus would have been more considerate in not mentioning his ancestor's name when they went over there. Oh well, best to tell the truth. "Alright, alright. I am a nobleman by blood. So what? Aren't you?"

"In terms of blood... then yes. But it doesn't mean a thing in githyanki society," said Rev'keth and turned on the human. "What house are you?"

"...What?"

"Come on, tell me. I want to know what house you belong to."

"What does it matter to you anyway?" Raydan asked. "I'm the last of it, anyway. No reason to-"

"All the more reason to know for me," said the githyanki. "Go on, it won't change things between us." Eventually, Raydan sighed as a sign of surrender.

"House Heran. We're nicknamed the "Hunter" family because of our history to hunt dangerous wild beasts throughout Samasal. Other than that, there's not much to tell, really."

Rev'keth backed away from his companion for a moment to think. "House Heran..." he mumbled to himself, along with the lines that he needed to look up the databases regarding that house. "Alright. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose."

"Eh?" Raydan was left wondering there for a moment. "You're not mad or something?"

"Why would I be mad," Rev'keth asked him, "since you were the one who said "As long as we can negotiate, we can be allies"? Besides, I don't know what country that house lies in so I can't be prejudiced."

Before either of them could continue their talk, the sound of fast cloves galloping towards them cut them off and the two resumed their weapons to take aim at the direction. It turned out to be a rider. Human, soldier in boiled studded leather armor riding on an elk. He had an axe and an oval shield on his person. This was common armor for human soldiers so they couldn't tell where he came from. "I'm a messenger looking for the Singing Blades mercenary company. Are you part of them?"

"Unless you've stumbled upon the Angry Spears or the Laughing Axes, then yes we are," said Raydan to him. Strangely, they had the same accent to the githyanki. The messenger merely produced a scroll to them.

"This is for the captain's eyes only," he told them. "You men are needed for the defense of our country." He turned his elk around and then stopped himself and turned the elk around again. "Also, I understand that you have the Witch of Man in your band as well."

"Between you and me only," said Rev'keth. "I'm her bodyguard, assigned to her by Captain Anchev. What does it matter to you, anyhow?"

The messenger looked at the githyanki for a brief second. "Just making sure. Our sire will be thankful for your protection of her." And then he rode off from them.

"What was all that about?" Raydan asked his friend.

"I don't know," replied the knight as he held the scroll. "But the captain need to see this. Come on."

The two hunters returned empty-handed back to the camp with just a piece of parchment for the captain's eyes only.

It was only later during the althing that the mercenary band held during vital decisions that they discovered to their horror (and to the hobbo's and the gith) that they were marching south towards the kingdom of Kalamar. Raydan felt a bit squeamish.

_**Back in the Diorama Sphere..**_

"Are we going down there?" Nodoka asked the eye patched githyanki as they stood in the middle of a forest in broad daylight at the entrance to a big cave that led directly down to the Underdark, which was pretty much the worst place one could imagine going into, after the first sixty layers of the Infernal Abyss. The others looked quaint about this decision as well.

"I am afraid so," answered Fashtar and put a hand on her shoulder. "I guarantee you this. You are **not** going to like this at all."

Seeing as he wasn't, Nodoka could only nod. So far, it was at three on a scale of one to ten. The minute he would start shiver, it would go to two. "Come on, everybody. We got several miles to go and I'm afraid our man is not patient one." Fashtar gestured for Jarlaxle to take the lead. "Jarl, I expect you to lead the way. You know the Underdark better than any of us."

"Oh, Jarl was it?" The dark elf scratched his bald backhead for a moment before nodding. "I like it. Alright everyone, follow my lead, quickly. From here, I expect about four days before we arrive. And it is not a pleasant trip to there, either. We'll be lucky if we suffer only one attack."

Fashtar followed him suit into the dark and Huelun went after them. Soon, all of them were heading there, but before Nodoka took another step down, she felt the energy of someone scrying on her. Part of Divination was scrying, or looking at people from a distance by muttering a few words. Problem was, that it required that you had to know the person or at least know of him or her. A diviner would also be able to detect someone looking at them. Nodoka could differentiate between people scrying after having been scried on in school on at least four occasions, twice from Brocca when she noticed that he started fancying her. This on the other hand was different. It was crystal clear on her, yet it was nobody she knew. This was a very powerful diviner, himself.

"You okay?" The dwarf, Gorim, dressed in silk robes and carrying a heavy book by his side all the time had stopped to check on her. Nodoka spared a look back at the supposed source, but it was gone.

"Yes. I'm fine," she replied and kept on walking beside the dwarf.

For about three days the seven wanderers stalked through the dark and dank caverns of the Underdark, led by their drow scout. Jarlaxle turned out to be a very much nice person, subverting most of what Nodoka had learned of them, through study and stories of what Ela's mother used to tell her daughter back when she was alive. Granted, he still had his personal drive, which was profit. The githyanki had certainly a very big paycheck for him if he accompanied him for the time being if he had managed to get Jarlaxle aboard this group.

He wasn't the only one in the team though. Everyone who was there were hired people who barely knew one another and was in it purely for the monetary benefit. Thorgar was the big muscle of the group, as shown by his warhammer and muscles contained within his leather armor. The guy was huge, equal at least to Rakan in height and weight. Not as boisterous in personality but the bookworm couldn't help but imagine the guy would be eager for a fight when it presented itself to him. Still, for the past three days, he was shown to be very nice, having a thing for writing poetry.

Gorim... was not the kind of dwarf she expected. Relying too much on stories, the bookworm's idea of a dwarf was a stout brown haired fellow with a beard that went down to the feet and always carrying an axe and a tankard that seemed to never run out of ale made from mushrooms. This one would have taken offense at that. His red beard was cut to the chin for practical reasons so he would not trip over it all the time. He liked to drink ale, obviously, but ale made from wheat, not mushrooms. And he had a small barrel which was enchanted to never run out of the stuff. That and the Anymug he carried could produce any liquid stuff he required. Still, he said he was an archivist, a divine magic equivalent of what she was. Nodoka didn't understand that at the moment, only that he could use divine magic without somehow being a cleric. She'd have to talk to Fashtar later.

Huelun wasn't the friendliest of people, her stoic face told the girl all that from the start. The ranger woman in boiled leather seemed Eastborn, as if coming from a region similar to Mongolia or somewhere like that. Either way, she had bow arms and always carried two bows at one time, with enough arrows to fill a whole squad of twelve men with holes. She was friendly enough to talk and answer questions as well as looking out for them when the need was there, but she didn't tell them anything about her private life. She seemed like someone who didn't belong in this world. Nodoka didn't figure that she would want to make friends with anyone in this group.

On the other hand, Nailbrain as he was constantly being called, was among the friendliest people she had ever known, even if he was shorter than her. Even by midget standards she knew, he was small. They waved him off as a gnome and he was okay with that since that was what he was. He was small and Thorgar always had to watch his step with him, but boy was he good with his hands. Ever since their boss had found him, Nailbrain's been tinkering with scrap metal he keeps finding. He always says, "Name something and I'll build it. Just you watch," and then he'd just get to work. Out of sheer fun of it, Nodoka asked him if he could build a truck. After learning the specifics he simply said, "Tricky, but I'll do it. Just give me the proper materials." Nodoka received a stern talking from the githyanki master to not encourage the gnome. She'd only make things worse.

But Jarlaxle was still the most odd of the bunch. For a drow, he was charismatic, gentle and respectful. He was said to be a mercenary but he looked nothing like it. Colorful clothes, a vest that was too small for him and revealing his stomach and abs, along with a big hat with a feather in it, the bald elf looked more like a pimp. Granted, he had an eye patch like Fashtar, only it was a simple one and he had a rapier on him always so he did see fighting constantly. Whilst his motivation was profit and business deals, his personality was almost like Haruna, only more charismatic and gentle. He did joke about willing to bed the bookworm but that was as far as he went when he realized she wasn't willing. He was the man she could get along with the most in the group.

Still, she could feel that scryer looking at her. She couldn't scry back at them just yet but she had a feeling that it would be the one who answered Fashtar's letter. She kept it to herself, but most of them would surely notice that and be polite to keep quiet about it.

On the fourth day, she came to realize something and deliberately put herself in deep thought outlook and when they got started to move again, Huelun noticed and alerted the boss. "Something the matter, Nodoka?" Fashtar asked her.

"I came to realize something," she told him and then looked at him. "About the place we're going to. It is evil, isn't it?"

A brief second lingered before he figured it out. "Ooh. It's that kind of talk. Breaktime is increased, everyone." He took a seat opposite of her before answering her. "Well, yes it is evil. Even by my standards, really."

"Even by-" She repeated.

"If we are to look in the standards that you and the society you come from has, then I am evil as well," he told her. "Even Jarlaxle. And through his people's eyes, he is considered a good guy."

"It's true," the drow confirmed. "I am one of those very few drow who can be seen as a nice person. I could name at least two more by reputation."

Gorim cut him short there. "But not now. It generally depends on a person's own point of view on what good and evil is. On the drow, the whole race is considered evil due to its reputation as assassins and worshipers of the Spider Queen. You are familiar with her, aren't you?"

Nodoka nodded since when studying the drow in the library out of curiosity, there was always references to their goddess Lolth, their Mistress of the Webs and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Stories tell how she betrayed the other elven gods and led a rebellion against them and lost. From there, she led her chosen people, the dark elves, to underground where they live to this day. There was an account that stated she did so out of fear that the elven races would fall to their pride in not needing to know weaponry.

"They hate all races equally and very few of the surface races can live freely inside their cities," continued Huelun whilst sharpening a small curved elven shortsword. "But they understand the value of trade with the surface at least."

"But back on the subject of good and evil," interrupted Fashtar. "I know that I am evil and I am because of circumstances to my kind. But if we were to assume that something was evil based on outlook and personality, then we would be calling Huelun evil, now wouldn't we?"

"If it weren't for that ridiculous paycheck you promised me after this job, I'd kill you for that insult, boss," she told the githyanki.

He managed a small smile at her. "See? She's just a bit grumpy, that's all. It's like saying something is a monster just because it's a wild beast. A real monster is an individual who doesn't care at all how many innocents get hurt when he does something. Again, point of view. If people actually bothered to be friendly to something that looks different, then the universe would be a much better place. Still, every solar cycle, billions die. That's the way of the universe and there's little we can do about that."

"So... you're evil in a sense, but you're evil only because you... need to be?" Nodoka asked him.

"Hmm... in a sense but you're accurate. If I have to become a devil to make sure that my people who were once rotten to the core, is no longer evil, then fine by me. Somebody has to carry the burden."

For a moment, Nodoka could understand the githyanki. Still, he had abducted her from her home a few weeks back (outside the sphere) so she couldn't fully sympathize with him. "One last thing. We're heading to a drow city, aren't we?"

To that, Jarlaxle gave a chuckle and spoke up, "Not just any drow city."

* * *

If there was any place that Good could not fit in at all, or a drow city famous up on the surface, none was more so than Menzoberranzan. Built inside a massive cavern, the City of Spiders was home to more than 32 000 inhabitants, therein 11 000 drow. The remaining majority were slaves. Vast palaces marked the existence of noble houses, some more extravagant than others and large pens housed large beasts recognized as Rothé, as back on Tu'narath.

The streets were filled with drow dragging slaves about, small lizardfolk creatures in rags for clothing cleaning the streets. Someone who had been stabbed in the back in the open street was being taken away by the small creatures and everybody's walking by as if nothing had happened. Every now and then, some high standing woman down there would make her way escorted by heavily armored militia soldiers of her house and everybody would step aside for her and the escort. Someone who stepped out of line or didn't pay homage to her, was killed on the spot in the lady's personal fashion.

The party of seven were all watching from a distance on a ledge and the youngest of them seemed very nervous about this whole thing already. "Err... does the person who live here have the right to reject me and send me to someone else?" Nodoka asked the master.

"Yes," Fashtar replied.

"Do I have the right to say no to him?"

"No."

"I'm starting to wish there were more than just one who had replied in my case," she finally noted.

"So do I." The githyanki took a good look out over the city, seeing as there were some parts of it still in ruin. "This is the last place I would want to place you in. We can only hope he says no."

"So you could take me in yourself or something?"

"No, so I could ask somebody else. Someone who understands what difficulties you've faced and would train you accordingly." This time, Fashtar jerked and took a look around them. "We're being watched." Everybody drew their weapons and took defensive positions around the bookworm's form. "Not that watched, you idiots. Somebody's scrying on us."

Huelun eased first, but still had an arrow on the bowstring. "Probably just a sentry. They don't have organized patrols here but they keep watch on new arrivals, it seems."

Nodoka nodded. This scrying belonged to someone else than the one she had felt over herself.

Jarlaxle petted her head. "Don't worry. We're small and since they saw me with you, they probably wouldn't lift a finger against you lot." Then his ears prickled and he had a look around them. "Uh, Fashtar, do you mind if I stay here? Somebody's got to watch our rear and exit."

"If you wish, Jarlaxle. But you'd best be here when we come back," said Fashtar and led the rest of them into town. Jarlaxle saw them off with a good wave and then turned to the shadows.

"Okay, Kimmuriel, I know you're there. Come out so you and I can talk peacefully..."

In town, the six of them were wandering through the streets of the city, ignoring the vicious sights that it had to offer for them. Nodoka was kept forbidden from seeing anything like that for her own "protection" according to the gith master. Huelun and Thorgar had been told to keep the bookworm's head down until they reached their destination. The purple haired girl was kept hidden from the prying eyes of the people in the city, viewing the party of five clustering together.

But then a group of ugly bugbears approached them from the front. "'ey! We dun like youse lot 'round 'ere. Rich 'ooking pipple like youse."

As he was the leader of the bunch, Fashtar stepped forward to face them. "No time for uglies this cycle. Move."

"We ain't movin' till ya pay da toll," said the lead bugbear. "Lessay... 'bout half yer gear and wha'ever slave your big friend is hidin' under 'is arms."

He got shot in the head with a hand cannon. "Not happening," said Fashtar. "And as for the of youse... get out of my sight or I'll turn you all into a new form of bloody cheese." The fact that he had a little thing that just made their boss' head explode from a distance without anything apparently coming out of it made the rest of the bugbears run away from the market. He folded in his Carnifex and told the onlookers, "Show's over! Nothing to see!" Then he gestured for the group to move on.

The crowd dispersed as soon as they had gathered. This city was not in any way the best place to be in, Fashtar thought and took an angry glare at wandering drow who watched them. The sooner they got there, the better.

Eventually, they reached it. Having the biggest palace in the whole city, House Baenre was the first house in Menzoberranzan and also home to the wizard who had replied to the letter. It was highly bizarre that a drow of all things would consider teaching a human magic, never mind willingly. What the hell was this man thinking at the moment? Was it because of her background? Her own magic from Earth? Nodoka's magic items? Her Divination artifact?

Each of those was a reason sound enough to exploit her to gain power but take the fact that it was a human and a drow together and nothing makes sense. Had the master been human and the apprentice a drow, then things would be expected that the apprentice would try to murder the master for his knowledge, but what would happen if the roles were reversed? Stranger things have happened but this was a combination that was very unfavorable.

The guards allowed them entrance and they entered into a large compound, easily three-eighths of a mile long and a quarter mile wide in a rough oval shape. They also noted the magical fence that took the form of a silvery spider's web, standing up to 20 feet high and surrounding the palace. Towers stretched high into the cavern, only stopping about 100 feet from the cavern roof. As it was standing on the highest tier of the massive cavern that was the drow city, this was an impressive feat. All for the purpose to intimidate visitors and opponents. Not even the second largest compound in the city could match up to this. A palace this size would house probably two and a half thousand soldiers.

When they entered the palace itself, they found themselves in a large oval throne room where the torches were blown out by the great throne itself. The rest of the place was lit by blue torches and terraces went all around them above the floor. Fashtar had his hand cannon pistol ready and the others had their chosen weapons ready, save for Nodoka who was still hiding. "It's okay to come out now. It's you they want to see, not a bunch of armed people looking like they're willing to fight."

When she did step out, several pairs of eyes of gold appeared on the terraces, surrounding the lot. Huelun raised her bow up against them, only to notice that there were soldiers on their level as well, brandishing swords, shields and spears at them. Some of them placed themselves on the raised throne floor and brandished crossbows at them. Undaunted so far, the githyanki stepped forward. "Interesting and friendly welcome so far... Matron Baenre."

The blue torches beside the throne lit up to reveal a dangerous looking drow female, having red eyes and dressed in black. Rather than being seductive in her outlook, her dress seemed more like she was partially prepared for battle. It did sport a breastplate that showed off her perky breasts in terms of seduction but the slit up the dress displayed a hidden blade on her leg, suggesting heavily that she was ready to kill someone at any time. She wore the tiara of the house, which showed the symbol of House Baenre. On her hip hung a whip with five viper heads leashed together on an adamantine handle, each hissing and viewing the interlopers with hostile eyes. "You must be the wizard from that surface academy," she said in a very much mature and unique voice, telling tones of experience to herself. "Was it Greywoods?"

"Greenwood's," he corrected her in spite of the soldiers. "And we came here since your house wizard was the only one who replied to our call for a mentor on this apprentice. Which I find more than "rather odd"."

Matron Baenre rose from the throne to step down. It was only now that Nodoka noticed just how small drow were. The matron mother was no more taller than herself. The woman placed herself in front of the bookworm and made an inspection that involved walking in a circle around her and touching her face with her hands. "I have no idea why my brother would prefer taking in a human and I hold little support of this decision."

"It should please you then, that he still retains the right to reject this one," offered the githyanki, holding on to that hope very much. "This one is – to us, at least – too valuable to leave here."

Baenre finished her inspection of the purple haired girl and looked her straight in the eyes. "Since he isn't here at the moment, I suppose I'll question her for the time being until he arrives. Basic first. What is your name?"

"Nodoka Miyazaki," the bookworm replied to the drow matron.

"Chosen school?"

"Divination."

"Barred?"

"Evocation."

"Do you have any specific wishes regarding your stay here if you get accepted?"

Nodoka blinked on that one for a second and then answered, "Yes, Matron. I'd prefer to stay alive in my time here and not be forced to wear the kind of clothing I hear you drow wear, please."

In response to that, the matron took her by the throat and drew her close so they could feel each other's breath. "Show respect to your superiors." Then she let go and walked back to the throne. "I begin to think that Miyazaki got to her position so far through either luck or by opened legs."

"What?" The githyanki stepped forward in anger and a soldier got too close with his sword and shields to the taller man. "Matron or not, you will show respect to this girl. Apart from being the best student of her graduation year – through hard work and studies, by the way – she is also one you do not want to make mad."

The matron merely smirked at him. "As if she'd be as dangerous as a male of this house." She had a look at Nodoka. "Even if so, to me she is nothing more but a little girl that seems unable to do things on her own, it seems."

That triggered a bright flash of light from the group and a gust of wind from them as well, disarming most of the soldiers, but mostly those armed with crossbows. The flash ended swiftly and all of a sudden, the tables seemed to have taken a turn. More notably, Nodoka had stepped forward. "Do pardon my speech, Matron Baenre, but I stand on my own two legs as I always have since even before enrolling at Greenwood's. Personally, I wouldn't have come here if there was another choice but here we are, at least."

Baenre nearly flares up with anger on her face but keeps it in control before taking out her whip. "Fine. A test to see how you do under attack." She flicked her wrist to let the viper heads fly and crack in the air and then retracting it back to her hand. "If you can reach me without getting hit by this whip then you might have proven yourself."

The bookworm didn't flinch but decided to bite back with a minor retort. "You think I'm too good for any of your men?"

The matron paused for a moment. "As you wish." In her place came two soldiers instead.

"Is that really necessary?" A new, deep, male voice called out to them and they saw a relatively tall (about as tall as Asuna) drow man dressed in very regal clothing, woven of fine silk and neatly combed hair. Red eyes and a solid face, this was most likely the wizard who replied to them. "I don't think that Miyazaki really needs to show off her skills at once. It is not in the requirement."

"Archmage," the matron scowled all of a sudden. "Just how long have you been standing there?"

"A fair while, Matron Quenthel," he replied coldly. "What intrigued me mostly is that Miyazaki could make a flash of light without muttering any incantation and just by snapping fingers." He walked right up to the bookworm to have a closer look at her. "Very... intriguing, I must add."

The githyanki blinked a bit before speaking up. "Uh, right. Intriguing." He had a look around them and then added, "How about we take this conversation in private? You leave the soldiers and the family members out of this, until a later time and my group will wait outside. Does that sound fair to you?"

The matron and the archmage shared a look at each other before she replied, "Very well. The rest of you, leave us. We can take care of ourselves." Steeling themselves, the soldiers and the "family members" of the house began to filter out of the throne room, leaving them alone. Fashtar's own group of mercenaries started leaving themselves, heading back to the door they came in through. Once the four of them, the matron, the archmage, Fashtar and Nodoka were alone, the first of them spoke up, "Now, you may tell us the story behind this, githyanki."

"Fine." Fashtar took a deep breath first. "Nodoka here has been caught up in a civil war where we live. Ifrith, a rather much like you drow kind of ruler – if you'll excuse the analog – found out about a prophecy that she were to bring him down and be crowned in his stead and declared war. We of the higher ranked hierarchy thought it'd be best to leave things as they were. We were wrong. Two more factions rose and have declared all out war on both each other and the two first factions. It became necessary for us to take action in order for things to turn the way we want them to go."

"Curious, then," the archmage said coolly and flexed his fingers a little. "that you would take the faction of a human over one of your own kings."

"Well in our defense to that, Ifrith is a very unpopular king and a ruthless master to his people." Fashtar began pacing. "For 500 years, people have suffered under him, waging war against one another. Sometimes it has gone overboard and he had done next to nothing. Nodoka here is the lands' best hope. Furthermore, she has been adopted by **our** archmage so that makes her legitimately next in line for the same throne."

The same sentence got the bookworm's mind going personally. _Wait a minute, if I'm next in line and Ifrith is the High King..._

"She has been hounded enough in her father's eyes. So we were practically ordered to make sure that she receives a very good education in order to defeat Ifrith and the other two factions."

"So you're eliminating an opponent of yours through your little human princess," said Quenthel. "How very... interesting on its own."

Fashtar got himself a scorn on his own face as he watched the drow bitch smirk at him. "How we handle things is not of your concern, here."

"True," said the archmage on his sister's behalf. "But let's say for instance that I did take her on as an apprentice... what benefit would that be for us? Obviously you must have thought of something that would have our side in this civil war of yours on your side."

Fashtar had a deep thought to himself before replying, "I could guarantee you trade rights with us, for a start."

"But not enough," Quenthel cut him off. "Your trade rights would only delay us and even when we would get it, we would only receive second-hand technology that decays and low-quality items that would not improve our lives."

_Not that you care about improving the drow lifestyle, anyhow..._ he thought to himself.

"We shall have fine technology from you, magic scrolls, gold, various goods and slaves," she continued. "Considering that our city needs to recuperate from the last war we suffered, and the possible size of your own empire, this is a generous demand you could meet."

"Statistically, yes," said the taller gith. "But unlike you drow, servants of a demon and traitors to one another... We. Have. Standards. Why should I agree to trafficking in a time like this? When our people is in disarray and in need of proper guidance?"

"Oh, you're.. one of those," she said with a hint of disgust in her voice. "You're one of those who think that by staying together, the race remains strong. Our ways keeps us strong, mage and that is why we remain to this day."

"If I may be so blunt, and even if you are one of those who cannot take criticism..." he countered whilst the archmage and the bookworm were watching from the sidelines. "The same methods you use are also hindering you from your true potential. Without Lolth, your society would have collapsed ages ago. Murdered. So do pardon me for speaking so bluntly but you are obviously not one to trust when it comes to politics like this."

Quenthel was very close to taking out her whip again and brandish him for what he said, but as the matron, she maintained her cool. "Well, we drow are not always treasonous. And we are in dire need of the supplies I demanded of you. Question is, are you going to pay us what we need despite being highly distrustful of us?"

At that point, the two onlookers shared a look at one another and the girl sighed and decided to speak up in order to break this argument. "I could hold them to it." Both the arguers turned their heads to her. "As Fashtar said, I am the daughter of the archmage so that means I will have influence with them. My father would pay the tribute to you since he can differ from his personal point of view and a political one. Personally I agree with Fashtar, but since this is the only way available, we have to agree to the terms."

If Fashtar had any displeasure after thinking on that one for a while, he didn't show it on his face. "Good head," the archmage commented on her. "A good start."

"...Fine," Quenthel agreed with her brother. "We'll get paid after she'll have stayed here. And how long is she to stay, assuming we take her in?"

"We are able to handle the war on our own without her leadership for the moment and they take a long time in our case so about..." Fashtar said for her case, not revealing the actual time span. "Seven years."

"Seven?" She questioned immediately. "We're to have her here for seven years?"

"Assuming you bring her in, yes."

The archmage decided to step forward. "Matron Quenthel. Master Fashtar, may I suggest that you two take your political argument somewhere else? According to what the academy says, I am to evaluate this apprentice. I can scarcely do so with politics so heavy in the air," he told them. Quenthel had a scornful look at him before gesturing for the githyanki to follow her into a minor hallway. He reluctantly did so. Once the two were alone, Nodoka found herself barely able to stand, yet maintained herself in front of this archmage. "I am familiar with most surface names as they usually hold a meaning to them," he said to her calmly. "Yet I am **un**familiar with what either "Nodoka" or "Miyazaki" means. Is it from outside of Faerun?"

She realized that he saw through her and swallowed before replying, "Yes. It is from outside of Faerun. The name Miyazaki means "shrine cape" in the native tongue of my home and Nodoka means tranquil, quiet or calm."

"Suggesting that you were very easy to handle as a child and your parents were probably high standing in the local clergy," He said. "Or very religious, at least." He began to walk away from her to the throne. "Now that I know your name, it should be fair that you know mine."

Nodoka nodded at him.

"I am Gromph, first son of House Baenre, diviner and archmage of Menzoberranzan." There was a pause before he started again. "Now that we know each other, let's start with the basics. How is it that wizards casts magic to begin with?"

* * *

"What I find odd with you is that you even bothered to come here in the first place," said Quenthel the minute they walked into the hallway, the soldiers leaving the two alone.

"And what I find odd is that you even bothered to reply to us," Fashtar countered at the drow matron. "You don't mix yourselves with surface politics in the first place."

"Which is exactly why I disapprove of this notion," she snarled at him. "But since this is wizards' business, Gromph has the final word in this. I may only voice my displeasure but I cannot force him to change his mind. That's how this is built, apparently."

"So you do not approve of this simply because you cannot have a higher word in this than a male of this house, is that it?"

"That and I have a high displeasure for humans as well." It was no secret to the house that Matron Quenthel had a dislike for other races than the drow and for males. But Gromph was in fact the most powerful mage in the city and angering him, even if she was the stronger, would be devastating. He held sway over the city's school for wizards and even though its purpose was to educate the males (and occasional female) in the arcane ways, he could rile the apprentices and masters there against her. He had even tried to assassinate her in the past using demons – even though they failed and she never found out the culprit.

As much as they were siblings, Gromph and Quenthel hated each other. "The fact that you were to approach us to begin with is probably what started this."

"Oh, like I would expect you people to reply," he told her. "We just happened to have a drow that year and I thought that you would reply to that one. But no~, your brother had to go with the little human girl with purple hair simply because that was more unusual."

"You better watch your tone with me!"

"And you as well with me!"

Both of them stared at each other whilst collecting their breath again. This argument was getting them nowhere. "Look," he finally said. "I wouldn't bring her within a hundred leagues of this or any other drow city. To me, you dark elves are nothing more but treacherous scum who grasp at pathetic attempts to gain real power whilst keeping yourselves down from truly conquering the Underdark. But at least, you are the better choice than nothing. And you do keep your word when you truly mean to."

Quenthel kept silent for a moment before taking a few paces away from him. "So... you'll be making sure that we keep our part of this bargain, should my brother accept?"

"Oh, you can bet your sexy ass on that, matron." He took a deep breath before adding, "No offense. So you'll be making sure that she stays healthy, with all limbs and digits intact and secure."

"Secure?" She asks. "Here?"

There was a pause before he replied. "That's not how I meant it. Some traditions states that a princess has to be..." he cleared his throat. "...sexually protected until her wedding day. That's what we hope with her, at least."

"Oh. _That_ secure," Quenthel said as she realized it. "I shall see what I could do about that."

The two of them returned to the throne room to find the two wizards talking on and on in fluent Draconic. From what the taller of them could scramble out of it, Gromph was questioning her about several theories of how magic worked, and how one could utilize the spells a wizard knew in order to achieve financial success. She would at some point ask what a specific word meant in the common tongue and he would answer it like a good mentor. It was almost starting to scare the githyanki.

At least the archmage wasn't smiling when she answered correctly.

"We're back," Quenthel spoke up and walked over to the two. "Have you made a decision, archmage?"

"Not yet," he replied. "I have one last inquiry to make and it does involve master Fashtar." He took a look at Nodoka first and then at Fashtar and then paced slowly to the throne's side. "I can tell when somebody's lying or telling the truth and so far, Miyazaki has been telling the truth about answering a few questions directed at her personal life. Most, however, are lies. Lies that she didn't make, herself."

Fashtar stiffens, fearing the drow would demand a full answer.

"And she did tell the truth when she said she had barred Evocations," he continued. "However, something does not add up. If Miyazaki has indeed barred the evocations, why is it that she was able to create a gust of wind with**out** saying any spell words?"

This time, both the human and the gith stiffened. He had them both there and the matron watched them, remembering herself that it required evocation magic to do so. The two guests shared a look at one another and Fashtar gestured for the drow that they were having a telepathic conversation. For the moment, the drow settled with reading the faces they made during the talk.

Nodoka raised both eyebrows, as in stating a cautious question.

Fashtar grimaced his face, stating he wasn't liking it either.

She showed her teeth as if she was in pain.

He closed his eye as if he was putting his palm to his face.

She pouted and put her under lip forward, whilst putting up big eyes.

This time, he just stared at her, probably because he thought it would be no use.

Both eventually sighed at the same time before she started with a simple, "It is very complicated and difficult to understand fully."

After that, Fashtar said, "I'll put it in as simple terms as I can try." He had a look at the bookworm first. "Nodoka here is... an off-worlder. She was not born in Faerun, nor even Toril. She hails from a different world."

"Explain," was all Gromph told them.

"Well, on this world, they have magic," Fashtar continued. "But it is very different magic than what we use, archmage. Umm... I don't know how to fully put this in words..."

"Perhaps a demonstration would be suitable, then, instead?" Quenthel asked of them. "So that we can see for certain."

Whilst the bookworm's face went pale, Fashtar meekly replied, "Very well. We'll put up a demonstration for you." Then he turned to Nodoka. "You.. do remember the proper words and the spells, right?"

"How could I not?" Nodoka returned at him. "I've been reciting that whenever I could in school. Did you never wonder about those odd explosions that happened sometimes during the schooldays and holidays?"

He blinked. "That was you?" She shrugged in response and he sighed. "Never mind. Okay," he said before making a quick step to appear a small distance away from them. "Three spells from your homeworld, Nodoka. Each going up the scale of power."

"Right," she tells him and sparing a glimpse at Gromph and Quenthel, the two of them urging her with their eyes to get on with it. Then she started with the first spell. Magic arrows to be precise. _"Practe Bigi Nar, dudecim spiritus Lucis, Coèuntes, sagittent inimicum meam, Sagitta Magica Lucis,"_ She chanted heavily and twelve bright arrows of light emerged around her as she said the words. Once finished, they launched at the githyanki.

He erected a psionic barrier just before they exploded, blinding practically everyone in the room. It was enough to attract the attention of some of the soldiers. Quenthel merely scolded them for coming without permission. After they were sent away, the matron told the girl to go on.

"_Practe Bigi Nar,"_ she started again and Gromph noticed that was the same she said when she started. _"Unus folgor concidens noctem, in mea manu inimicum edat." _Her left hand which she raised for the drow to see, caught bright sparkling energy in the air, suggesting to the archmage that it was a lightning bolt next. _"Fulguratio Albicans!"_ This time, it did spawn a lightning bolt. Fashtar did not erect a barrier this time, he merely used both hands to... capture the White Lightning in his fingers. He then directed one of his hands along the other arm, past his abdomen and then directed it at the door, releasing the lightning.

The door was heavily protected against offensive magic, so it held, even though the blast caused it to slightly move. "...Ow," was all that Fashtar said after that stunt. "That did hurt." Then he repositioned himself and erected several barriers in front of him. "Archmage, this next spell could be more powerful than what you would imagine it to be."

Taking that as advice, Gromph took two steps back. He gestured for Nodoka to get on with it.

Taking a deep breath, the bookworm took a different stance and chanted again as wind and lightning kicked up together. _"Practe Bigi Nar, Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes, cum fulgurationi flet tempestas austrina. Jovis,"_ Fashtar gulped. _"Tempestas,"_ Quenthel got blinded by the light again. Gromph didn't blink. _"Fulguriens!"_

The big stream of combined wind and lightning surged rapidly through the throne room, smashing head first into the first barrier that the githyanki had erected. It smashed right through. Then it hit the second one. It smashed right through as well. Then the third, then the fourth, then the fifth, then the sixth. By the time it reached the eleventh, Fashtar started to look scared.

It reached the fourteenth, the second last barrier. "Okay, now I'm changing its direction," he said and then he made a dimension door. When the stream smashed through the fourteenth barrier, it went right into the dimension and its other end was behind Fashtar. This time, it slammed into the door and blew it wide open, going right into the big courtyard.

There has been many times that the archmage of Menzoberranzan could have been stunned by the sheer prowess of power some arcanists in the city could muster. He was not. The closest to come was Agrach Dyrr but he was a lich so it was expected. This, something completely new and unexpected and which had blasted through the defenses he had erected himself, made him very much surprised.

The four companions of Fashtar popped their heads in to have a look what had happened. "Boss?" Huelun asked. "Is everything alright in here?"

"Yes, yes, we're fine."

"Matron, Archmage!" A group of soldiers came rushing in, followed by a rather fat and podgy drow wizard with a goatee beard. "We heard the great explosion and we-"

"We're fine, you idiots," said Quenthel. "Miyazaki was merely displaying something."

"Nauzhror, your concern is well appreciated," said Gromph to the podgy drow. "Now leave and make sure that the other nobles does not interfere."

"As you wish, Archmage," Nauzhror said and went back, taking the soldiers with him.

When they were alone again, the archmage pondered over the possibilities. "I think I can see a rather... rough idea of how this off-world magic works," he says as he walks up to the bookworm. "I noticed that you used three specific words before saying the others, meaning that it is a form of key to unlock the magic. From there, you can use what spell you'd like as long as you say the right words. And, you draw magic energy from around yourself, as if the air was charged with it."

Nodoka gulped and sweatdropped at that. "Um... that's partially on how it goes, archmage."

Fashtar had a look at the two. "Does this change your verdict or something?"

Gromph looked at the gith first, then back at Nodoka before giving his verdict. "I'll take her." The words had an effect on both the bookworm and the githyanki. For the first time, Fashtar looked a bit scared and Nodoka felt the same after spending years of hearing what a horrible race the drow was. Still, Fashtar straightened up and cleared his throat.

"Well, that is ultimately your decision," he told the archmage. "Just, uh... give me a few moments with her." He gestured for the bookworm to come over to him and the two walked out to the courtyard.

"This could have gone a lot better," she said once she knew they were out of hearing distance from them.

"I know," he replied. "But this is how things stand." He picked out a big trolley case for her. "I took the opportunity to pack your things, plus a little extra. You'll be needing it."

"Where are you going?"

He hesitated at first before answering, "I need to be away during these years. That's why I hired my current team of mercenaries. We need to do something. Let's just say... I have a Plan, with a capital P. These things take time, as you probably know. In about seven years or so, I'll come pick you up from here if you haven't left it already." Her Honey Badger familiar stroked against her leg to tell her she was not alone. "Incidentally, have you considered a name for him?"

"Couldn't come up with something fitting Japanese," she answered as the ratel was walking around her feet. "So I settled for just HB. Heebie."

Saying nothing, he merely nodded at the name. "Come on, let's go. I got a few final words to say to the hosts." The two walked back to the throne room to find the two leading siblings talking to each other and they only stopped when they saw the other two come back, the younger dragging a big case behind her. "I've explained how things go for her and she'll stay here. Now, one last thing, though, which is not correspondent with the academy's rules..."

"Yes," Quenthel replied in a questioning tone. "What is that?"

"Where I come from, we githyanki have certain titles based on merits. They tell a lot about character and let me tell you this: Any body harm on Nodoka that is permanent or she is killed whilst being here and you two will see in person exactly why I live up to all three of mine," he told her directly.

"And what would these titles be?" Gromph asked him.

Fashtar first cleared his throat before starting, "The first one is rather obvious; The Administrator of Punishment." Quenthel scoffed at that one, thinking it was nothing. "The second title is... Leveler of Kingdoms." That caught their attention to him. Not many could bear such a title and not live up to it at the same time. "And the third, my personal favorite, The Devil trapped in Mortal Flesh."

If Quenthel showed any fear at that time, it was very brief but the look on her face was very much different from how Nodoka originally found her as. Then she steeled herself. "I see. Be on your way and we shall see to it that Miyazaki comes through this time. I make no promises on any injuries, but we shall heal her as good as we can."

Accepting that fact, Fashtar turned back to the courtyard and closed the door behind him. Nodoka gulped and had a look at the two, finding them staring back at her. After a short while, Quenthel walked to one of the doors that led deeper into the compound. "Guard!" When one of the soldiers came there, she instructed him, "Take Miyazaki to Maervra's old room. She will be staying with us for some time."

"We'll begin tomorrow," was all Gromph said and walked away as Nodoka was escorted to her new home for the next seven years...

* * *

"No, I won't resume control of Bregan D'aerthe, just... not yet," said Jarlaxle whilst he was talking to his lieutenant.

"Jarlaxle, I'm starting to wonder if you ever will do so," said Kimmuriel. "The sun has probably scorched your head for you to be this stubborn."

"Kimmuriel, you know exactly why I left," the bald drow told the psion. "Besides, if this new mission I am on turns out well, we'll have more business opportunities than ever before."

"I was wondering when you'd start to get involved with that," Kimmuriel muttered to himself.

Hearing footsteps, Jarlaxle saw Fashtar and the rest of the group without the purple haired girl. "Well, it would seem that I have a small business for you to do after all, Kimmuriel. As you can see, there was young human lady that went with them and now she is not."

"You want us to be babysitters?"

"No, no, no," Jarlaxle denied, of course. "When have I asked you to do something that silly?"

"I could mention something twice," said the lieutenant.

Jarlaxle thought back for a moment. "Well, this is not a babysitting duty. This is a bodyguard duty for the good of Menzoberranzan. I just happen to know that she is a vital princess and losing her would have dire consequences for both this city and her country. Soo... no pressure but it'd be very good if she was to be alive throughout her stay here."

"I trust that the reward will be substantial," said Kimmuriel, just as the githyanki came up to them.

"It will be," said Fashtar. "As long as you do your job. Come on, Jarlaxle. It's going to be a very long journey ahead of us."

* * *

The room had plenty of space, with just a desk and its chair, as well as a bed by the window. Not much for drow, but she had heard Waevra had been killed twenty years ago, so it was understandable that they had cleared it. Odd, though that no one else had moved in here during that time.

Nodoka started her time in Menzoberranzan, by opening her trolley case and see what was inside. The obvious things were a set of clothes, not revealing yet not modest. She noticed the Mahora school uniform and nearly frowned on that. It would seem daring to some but this was not a city famous for its academies. The white cloak back from Earth was in there as well, along with a small narrow wand that didn't have something on the tip. It resembled one of those wands described in the Harry Potter books, only it didn't have the exact materials and that it could be split in half.

Next followed a set of clothing that seemed very much appropriate for the streets of the city. It was merely a leather corset with strings on the front and a long skirt that went down to the feet yet had a slit on the side. If she was expected to wear it, she would but otherwise, not a chance in any Hell there was out there.

She found her Treasure Hunter outfit, with the breastplate and nearly everything else stuffed in there as well, only the bunny on the back was gone. Most likely, it didn't seem very appropriate here. Justified there, really.

At the bottom of the trolley case, she found her books. All of them, virtually intact. Fashtar must have found them again in that mountain and brought them back to her. Not sure why but she was certainly most grateful. The young human put them on the desk in a safe and secure order and then returned to the case. It was then that she found a small note, written in English. There was a smaller case inside the bigger, she noticed before starting to read the note.

"Carry this at all times, →," she turned the note and read the other side. "You will need this." Feeling curious, the bookworm took the case out of the trolley case and opened it.

She wasn't familiar with firearms and such, but inside the case was an M-5 Phalanx pistol, designed for accuracy with a laser sight. It came with an instruction manual. Hesitating, she picked it up and held it by the handle. It was rather lighter than she thought it would be. She knew in theory how to maintain and fire a pistol but this was the first one she ever held. Seeing as the note said "You will need this" which empathizes on "will," she resigned to having it and put in the holster that came with. First thing in the morning (if they have that here) she would start wearing it on the belt underneath the cloak.

A noise from the desk caught her attention now and she saw one of those small lizard people having a look at her books. "Hey," she called and it freaked out, scurrying off to the door, only she was faster than it. It rushed into a corner and braced itself from harm. "What are you doing?"

"No hurting Gracknir, please," it pleaded to her in a yipping accent of Draconic. "Gracknir was only curious! Please no hurting me!" Then it started to sob. That really appealed to her good nature.

"I am not going to hurt you, Gracknir," she told it in the normal accent of the tongue. "I just want to know why you were going into my books."

Gracknir looked at her in fear first before whimpering, "I was curious about the books, Mistress. Everyone always brings these books into their rooms and Gracknir keeps wondering what is inside the books. But the drow... watching, always watching and their nasty spiders keep spying on us and tattle on us if we get curious. Gracknir smart. Gracknir never try to sneak when drow around. But Gracknir thought human less paranoid and tried..." Then he started sobbing again.

Definitely a slave, she thought, watching the little critter. He was begging her through the sobs not to tell the drow otherwise he'd be killed and eaten by the spiders. Making sure that there was no one by the triangular door, she sighed a final time and told the critter,

"Gracknir, I will not tell anybody that you tried to get into my books." His face brightened up. "But... since I found you in this room, you'll be working for me as punishment instead. And you cannot read those books, even if you could read the characters." He found himself confused by that statement. "Understood? You work for me, or I will tell the drow about you sneaking into my books."

"Yes, yes, Mistress," Gracknir exclaimed with joy. "Gracknir will be good servant. Gracknir will bring food, clean you during bathes, perform sneaky deeds if you will. Gracknir will obey any command Mistress gives to me."

"Good," she said in the common tongue. "Now... would you mind telling me first what you are?"

* * *

Outside the same door, a drow mercenary by the name of Valas Hune listened. The art of stealth was more advanced than what the human girl was likely used to. Kimmuriel had sent him to keep an eye on her first, before bringing in the others. Valas was picked for his skill with the blades and the silence he preferred.

He could not speak Draconic himself, but he knew the tone of which she spoke with. That was all he needed to know before walking down the corridor.

"Very naïve" he said in the dark before disappearing completely in the shadows. Around the corner, Gromph stroked his chin and then nodded.

He would have to remedy that factor if she really was to succeed living in Menzoberranzan for seven years.

* * *

**A/N: **_There really must have been a chasm which I either crossed or fell down into when I wrote this piece. Either way, I am horribly, horribly, horribly evil. I swear to the gods, my own Brother (by the love of Gandalf's beard) exclaimed himself with horror: "Are you trying to break the poor girl!"_

_I am not. That is all I will say about this. Now for an important statement, which I learned to make after going to a 'Con this year:_

_The following pieces of literature revolving Menzoberranzan _**_will_**_ contain several adult traits. There will be murder, there shall be backstabbing, treason, politics of the worst kind, slander, rumors, a few parties, paranoia, scheming, invasion (Hit the floor!). There shall also be sexual themes on screen but there shall be no sex on screen. _**_No lemons._**_ I will not bump this up to "M". Many or nearly all of the named drow characters are canon and are owned respectively by the authors in the Forgotten Realms series, including the Legendary R.A Salvatore. Mr Salvatore, if you should catch wind of this, do not, repeat, _**_please_**_ do not sue me, I am merely a fanfiction author and I shall try my best to keep them in-character. The same statement will go to Ms Cunningham, who has also made a character who will appear here. I do not own any of these drow people, I just use them here for entertainment of the masses._

_That's all I have for you for now, so stay tuned and no hunting me down with pitchforks, torches and shotguns. Plus rope for lynching. Those are illegal and you wouldn't find me even if you did your best. See ya!  
_


	47. Slow pace

**A/N: **_Okay, let's see if I can do this one _**_without_**_ focusing too much on Nodoka. There are other people who need their spotlight._

* * *

It feels quite odd, waking up alone in an empty room with no one but yourself in it when you've grown accustomed to having others in there with you. He of all people should know that. Negi got up and stretched his limbs after a long journey home after the event of Marbella.

Finding out the aftermath was a devastating blow but he had been convinced that people do die in war and combat. Over two thousand people missing, at least 500 confirmed dead so far. Still, there was a scent of sweetness in the bitterness. 1500 robotic units had been captured and were being sent to labs across most of the modern world for study and dismemberment for analysis. And the main threat was gone. He wasn't expecting Sukh'an to come to Mahora to try and kill him there. Most likely, he would have to kill her then if she tried.

But that was thinking for another time. First off, he'd better get some-

"Thought we'd drop in with breakfast, Sensei," called Chisame with a tray in hand, followed by Ayaka and Misa for once. "You okay?"

"Sort of," he answered at first, "It wasn't as I expected my first vacation in months to be, but it turned out fine."

"Fine?" Chisame put the tray down on the table. "You went head to head against an evil alien bent on destroying a city and killing possibly millions whilst trying to get at you."

"I know," he told them. "I saw three good honest guys get killed by her in person, not counting the soldiers there." He sighed and took a seat on the couch. "I'm not liking this. Going into battle is not something one likes, but waiting on the edge of one we can't escape is even worse."

Ayaka took a seat next to him and put her arm around her shoulder. "Negi-sensei, we know. I know I was glad to survive encountering her, myself. Me, I would have recruited dozens of mercenaries to protect you and the city. But I suppose that would not have been enough."

"Nowhere near enough, I'm afraid," he told her. Misa sat herself on his other side while Chisame had a seat opposite of him. He was getting nervous about the proximity after what happened in Marbella.

"Well, that aside..." Misa started at first. "How did it go between you and Theo-sama?"

"Me and her?" Negi managed to get out of that position and took a few paces, finding himself quite unable to sit still. "It went rather well. We bonded after the big battle but nothing serious."

"Did you, uhm..." She started and then gestured with her hands regarding something informal.

"What? No, no, we didn't," said Negi quickly. "Why would we want to do that with the huge age difference between us?"

"Just checking, just checking," the cheerleader said and left it at that.

"So what now?" Chisame asked him. "You've been on your vacation, sort of," she added after a moment. "You saved a city and you had a relatively good time. What are you going to do now?"

"I am likely to return to teaching for today," he first told them. "As long as I stay away from certain sights – which means you can close your legs, Kakizaki-san," to that, she closed them, cursing herself mentally for trying to vie for him there. "...and keep a cool head, I should be fine for today. But tomorrow, I need to take Alicia-san out on a thank-you-date for some help she gave me before I went to Marbella."

"You WHAT?" All three girls asked him. And then Rachel popped her head into the apartment, her flat chest being topless at that.

"You gonna take Alicia-chan out on a thank-you-date, Negi-chan?"

He closed his eyes and groaned. "Please tell me Aristodemus-san doesn't have cameras installed everywhere."

"Now, that is complete nonsense," she told the young man with a good tone. "They're mine. He just tends to borrow them, every now and then."

Negi's face paled. "Even in the bathroom?"

Rachel averted her eyes. "Well, I can only really comment that you have a very nice ass."

_**In a cave in the middle of a barren wasteland**_

"How come we haven't run out of ammo out of these things just yet?" Asuna wondered aloud as she was inspecting her shotgun.

"Now that's simple," Deadpool told her. "Dramatic suspension. We can use our guns as much as we'd like. Until we face something huge and ridiculously powerful. Then our guns won't help us. Which is why I'm going to avoid fighting the Big Bad on this planet and just go with killing mooks."

Everybody looked at him weirdly for a brief second and then went to their respective work of cleaning their weapons. It had been about four days since they came to the other dimension and it was only now that they could get themselves a break before heading back out there. It was a wonder that Minsc had lots of food with him, including an Anymug, which could create any liquid they wanted, as long as it wasn't poisonous. DP got hold of it once and it ended up with him getting something flammable on him. They had to restrain Asuna from trying to set the man on fire. Fire meant clothing damage and clothing damage he wouldn't have any clothes on. Which in turn meant that after the redhead figured out the rest, she was in need of Brain Bleach.

"So you won't be around for when we stumble upon the thing that we're here to defeat?" she asked the merc with a mouth who nodded at that. "Good. I could stand the- wait, hang on, that's a bad idea."

"Why is that?"

"Because simply – and I can scarcely believe that I am actually saying this – you are as much immune to magic as I am as well as psychic attacks, which I am not immune to. You leave and we'd have a harder time and nobody would pay us."

"What? No payment for just killing mooks? Fine, I'm in."

"Trouble is, we can't stay like this forever," said Saber, polishing her sword and armor. For once, they saw the immortal heroic spirit out of her battle outfit. All DP could comment on that she had a great ass for being an alien. Small chested too, but neatly shaped. Asuna felt disgusted by him and merely said that she looked nice. Saber only said thanks for it and started cleaning her equipment. "We need to find where this... Big Bad is. Fortunately, we have someone who can remedy that. Aerie?"

Their "witch" stepped from amidst a pile of grimoires and incense. "I can use divination magic to try and find something we can focus our attention on. From there we can set about our task here."

"Couldn't you have done that from the start?" Asuna had to ask and Aerie shook her head.

"No. I need to be familiar with something first before I can scry on it." She took a few paces around in the cave to admire its natural glow. "Sadly, I can only cast the spell once. Do you have a specific person that I can focus on, Asuna Kagurazaka?"

"Just Asuna works fine," she told the elf. "...I have more than just one but, just one time... just one... just one..."

"Come on, pick one already," said the merc and he received yet another shotgun blast to the face. "Ha! Dramatic suspension still in effect!"

"Shut up! I'm trying to think here." The redhead considered a lot of people that she knew whilst being on Tu'narath. Konoka... Setsuna-san... the Valkyrie squad, Yue included... Hell, even Fate or Andreas-san... But then she thought of one who she had spent a lot of time trying to find. "Nodoka. Nodoka Miyazaki, try to focus on her."

"Wha, the bookworm?" DP got up. "Hold on, let me look a few chapters up..."

"Ignore him," Asuna told them. "He's merely... different."

"Lessee..." he went on his own.

It took Aerie about ten minutes to cast the spell, despite DP's own loud attempts to stop her concentration. Truth be told, if a trucker honked his horn at her beauty as he passed by, she wouldn't budge. She had that amount of focus. Not even Eva had that much. And she muttered her spell in a language the redhead hadn't heard before.

When their wizard was glowing on the skin and in her eyes, she began talking so they could understand, "I see... pain... suffering... discontent at life... unable to control... this girl is in great trouble and in much misery."

"Oh man, why is it always that?" DP asked out loud.

"What is always that?" The protoss asked of him.

"That vague telling saying that somebody is in great misery and trouble. We've heard it before. Can't we get-"

"Minsc," said Aerie and her knight very much obliged with giving the mercenary a smack with Larry. "I'm sorry but that is all I can get from a name. I have never met lady Nodoka nor do I know what personality she has."

"According to this, she's in big trouble," DP said, looking through some notes that were just lying about. Then they all caught fire and burnt down to a frizzle. All he got in response was a text message that says [Don't look through my notes!] "I think the author is keeping things close to the chest here."

"Should we try again tomorrow?" Asuna asked.

"That won't be necessary," the witch replied. "I saw enough that I now know where to go. We should head out tomorrow, as soon as I've prepared the necessary spells we need for the venture. We shall be flying and-"

"I can take care of that part," Saber interrupted. "The less Aerie prepares her spells for travel, the better. Now that we have that set... I don't think we all know each other properly."

There was a pause of silence while everyone considered what to say. Except Deadpool. All they needed to know about him, they saw on him. They looked at one another to see if anyone was willing to go first. Eventually, Asuna sighed and started, "I guess ladies first. I'm Asuna Kagurazaka. In blood terms, I'm a royal princess from an old fallen kingdom that was considered in my home as the cradle of civilization and I was born with anti-offensive-magic abilities. Magic-cancel for short. I'm strictly combat oriented with focus on taking out enemy spellcasters. This is my first time with other people outside of the circle of friends I have. I guess it's the same for most of you. I also have an artifact that takes out summons in a flash."

Saber nodded and went second, "I cannot remember my own name which I had when I was born, or alive. They call me Saber, named after a magical system that utilized heroic spirits to serve specific magicians, Masters. I has always been the strongest of Servants in our caste, and people have always thought of me to be the most powerful. Much thanks to that belief, I hold very powerful psionic abilities and somehow I am immune to psionic powers aimed directly at me. I have traveled through many systems myself and I'm familiar with those insect like creatures. Alongside Asuna, we agreed that I was to be in command of this group."

"I am Aerie," their witch spoke up. "and this is my companion and protector, Minsc." "Squeak." "And his friend Boo, of course. We have journeyed together for some time after aiding a companion of ours in saving their sister. Minsc was on a trial of passage when we met each other. His culture demanded that he takes up a task to do before he could be considered a man. In his case it was to protect a "Witch" of his people."

"Dynaheir was torn apart before my very eyes when we were captured," said Minsc with rage in his voice. "I could do nothing! And they swatted Boo! I swore vengeance for that! And they have repaid the day they slew my witch and swatted Boo with their lives! Evil jumped on my sword when it realized what a mistake it had made!"

"Yes, we picked that up a few battles ago, thanks," said Asuna.

"Nevertheless, we met up shortly thereafter," said Aerie. "He was in despair so I offered myself up as his witch to protect. That's our history together. Minsc is a very able-bodied fighter who has stood against demon lords and dragons. I am apt in both divine and arcane magic, so I can cast several offensive and healing spells. If you could inform me where to aim my offensive spells, I could rain death over our enemies."

"Hi," DP started off. "I'm Wade Wilson and I'm pretty good at nearly everything this party does. Except at the magic bit. But I'm immune to both magic and psionic powers. That combined with my regen and asskicking lines, makes me pretty much _**the GREATEST SUPER-HERO EVER!**_"

_**Blam!**_

"Abilities only," Asuna warned him. "No bragging."

"Fine. I'm the only one here who is very good with firearms, making me superb for ranged combat when we're out of spells. I also use two katanas. Two Katanas. And as you can see and as Asuna here has demonstrated so very often, I regenerate on my own. Which is good for me since healing spells wouldn't work on me. I cannot be killed at all thanks to it. But you'd be surprised at what I could live through. So, just throw me at them and watch the carnage."

"Of what?" Saber asked him. "You slaughtering them, or you getting mauled by the giant scissor claws they have?"

Then the protoss stepped up before the merc with a mouth could answer the gith spirit. "I hold no name to myself just yet. I was taken from my... dimension before I could be granted a name for myself. I hail from the world of Shakuras, our new home after our original was overrun by creatures similar to these tyranids. I fought under Executor Selendis until an ambush at a warp gate occurred and I was lost. I ended up with the githzerai and they took me in.

"Not long after my refuge with them, I ended up in that battle against the illithids where I met you. And then came here alongside you. I'll admit I am a simple warrior among my people but I know my ways around battle with ease."

"Simple?" Asuna asked. "You're three meters tall and you got better armor than any of us."

"Clearly, you've never seen a Protoss up close," said Saber. "Our comrade here is of an average height to them."

"I do however, possess psionic powers of my own as all Protoss do. High enough to have advanced to become a Templar among my people, Executor Selendis said."

"I'm... just gonna call you Shakuras, from now on, if that's okay with you," said Asuna.

The Protoss stood silent for some time, pondering about the name. Then he said, "If it pleases you."

"Okay." Asuna gave a final clean to her shotgun and pumped it. "Let's get to it, everyone. The sooner, the better."

"Squeak."

"See? Even Boo agrees with me."

"Uh, it seems we're gonna get our scene cut here," DP said after a small silence. "So I'm gonna do something here. Hey, author. In response to Saber's question of what carnage we would get, of either me slaughtering the 'nids or them making me into mincemeat, what would you say?"

"Squeak," Boo interrupted the merc. Then the little rodent went over to Asuna and squeaked again.

"I think he said that the author, whoever he might be if he's even real, would say the latter."

_**In a library on the alien planet...**_

As much as she had come to learn how to speak the language, Hina also had to learn how to read it. A small benefit for when they came to the library Bax told them about and it was easy to get hired as mercenaries to protect the place from unwanted visitors.

It was odd to find a library in the middle of anywhere on this planet. Surely there would be marauders and such coming by. Of course, Boris pointed out that this place had several defenses built around it. The rampart was a good start, along with the arrowslits in the walls for the archers. There were about only a dozen trained men (not including them) defending this place, but the geography had been altered over the years so that they could last against an army for about four days at least.

Knowledge was power, it seemed. One should guard it well. And this place was certainly not willing to give it up easily.

Hina read through the book with difficulty at the moment, watched by the hobgoblin who had also agreed to teach at least Aika-san to learn the language too. Ayumu was kept out of the loop, as she would have trouble even with a tutor. It hurt the pink haired girl to not let the girl study but she needed a long explanation as well for how they got there and what they were doing on a different alien planet in the first place. Fortunately, Boris could keep an eye on her.

("It was a deary...") She started roughly on the line aloud for the hobbo to listen in.

("Dreary,") he corrected her.

("It was a dreary night in Iumchay... that I beheld the... the...")

("Accomplishment.")

("...the accomplishment of my toils,") she finished and got a pet on the head as reward. If she didn't like it, she did not show it. ("I had finished the...")

("Stone carving.")

("Stone carving... of my mistress'...")

("Statue.")

("My mistress' statue of herself as she did not want to be... f-fo-forgotten.") She cleared that word on her own and received another pat. That earned her a small break from reading lessons and she could talk to her friends. "How are we here?"

"Quite fine," answered Aika, reading a book whilst tending to the young baby girl. "Already, I'm starting to know how to read the language. Mostly."

Hina nodded and took a seat next to her. "So, how do you find all this?"

"Exciting. Dangerous. Mind-throbbing. Weird," the vice-president told the president of the Student Council. "To name a few. I don't know why we got here yet here me and Nishizawa-san are, along with you and Boris-san and Bax-san. Nishizawa-san is taking it somewhat better than me, I suppose."

"How so?"

"She's sitting around the corner having a chat with Boris," Aika said. "I didn't know that you were traveling alongside a former professional soldier."

"Ah." Hina scratched her head for a brief moment. "Boris does come from... questionable areas and has gone through ugly things himself but he has begun to change over his time here. I don't know... he's been quite friendly from what I could tell of him ever since I woke up one time."

"But even then, is it safe to be with him? He did kill someone this morning."

"More so than to be with some folks I know," Hina replied quietly. "But now that I think about it, how will the school fare without us?"

There was a heavily pregnant silence between the two. It lasted for about two minutes before Aika said, "We could be here all month thinking about what could happen."

"Yeah," the pink haired girl said and the two rose to walk outside for a bit, swinging by Ayumu and Boris having a heated discussion between each other, too heated for them to join in.

"Oh yes, I recall," Aika said as they strolled outside the building in the grass. "Ayasaki-kun has wondered where you had gone to."

"Eh?" Now Hina started up. She hadn't thought of him ever since she, Nodoka and Boris got up to the surface and got thrown into the civil war. "Hayate-kun?"

"Yes. He's been seen looking into the distance at times," said the vice-president. "Hanabishi-san tends to say that he's longing for you, in her own way. Segawa-san is kind enough to keep things low but then again, that Suirenji girl he's been seen with has begun to be talked about in rumors regarding her and Ayasaki-kun."

"Oh... that." Hina took a deep breath thinking about what could happen between him and Luca. The results so far – sixteen, in fact – involved crossdressing again, getting caught in the bath, trying their best to look at the manga she and Nagi (Sanzen'in, that is) were working on... and get slammed in the face for not telling them the truth. "Hayate-kun can handle himself for some time. We can't get there to help him, anyway. But Luca-san is not into him, as far as I know."

Aika kept quiet to herself but she suspected that the president of Hakou Academy was holding something back. The baby giggled as she guessed the same thing.

_**Somewhere else at some undisclosed time**_

The ghost shrieked as it attempted to claw at Thorgar's chest whilst he acted as a distraction to it. "I'm gonna need some help here!" He shouted over its shrieks throughout the forest, hoping that the wild elves wouldn't hear the noise. "What's taking you guys so long?"

"Apparently getting the trunk of a young Elder Tree isn't as easy as it sounds," Jarlaxle called to him, running around by the sound of his voice. "Gorim, be a friend to our giant and aid him, would you?"

The dwarf didn't object, at least, but he disliked having to get near the ghost. It just popped out of nowhere after they got what they came for in the Old Forest. There were also many reasons why it would appear and assault them.

He didn't like a single one of them.

Gorim opened up his book and spoke the holy words to ensure that the ghost would retreat from them, albeit temporary. The powerful shining light drove the female ghost away. But it wouldn't take long before it'd be back for more. His companion took the opportunity in that their opponent was gone and fell down to the ground exhausted. "Are you alright, Thorgar?"

"Peachy," said the half-giant. "It was fun tangling with a ghost of that capacity."

"Don't tell a lousy lie when we're in danger, Thorgar," the dwarf scolded him gently and set about to heal the barbarian's wounds by stroking over them while saying the right celestial words. "I'd prefer to get out of here alive."

"Hey, it was sarcasm." Thorgar rose up again and picked up his warhammer. "Have some humor, would you?"

"I do. Just not during a moment where we could be killed." Gorim turned to where their boss was sawing fervently through the tree trunk. "Call it a curse if you wish."

"How is it going over there?" Thorgar shouted over to the gith.

"Almost!" was the answer that they got. Fashtar kept sawing for all he's got but he still made a very poor lumberjack. Regardless, he was the one needed to saw it down for the necessity of this mission. If someone else were to cut down the tree, then the staff would be imperfect when it would be made alongside the other materials. He was, however, almost done in sawing through the thin trunk. Then the crack of wooden bark was heard. "Got it!"

"Finally," Huelun called from her lookout spot above them. "Can we now leave this place? I don't wanna end up in an elven belly tonight."

"Where's Jarlaxle?" The gith asked and then the drow appeared next to him with Nailbrain hanging on the side, the little gnome seemingly scared out of his mind. "What's with him?"

"Oh, Nailbrain just suffered a little close up with a tree spirit that didn't look too happy to see us," said the drow.

"I'll be good, won't harm a branch anymore," the little boy muttered to himself in a squeaky, almost cute, tone of his voice. "No more hurting little branches..."

Fashtar had a deadpanned look at the gnome before turning to Jarlaxle, "You threw him right at the tree spirit, didn't you?"

"Well, he _did_ say that he was willing to fight something in this forest," the drow answered him. "Besides, he told me his birthday is within the week. I figured you could wipe his memory of the horrid stuff after we get out of here as a present."

"Ah, good timing, then. It's always vital to combine these things with dates."

"Happy birthday to me..." Nailbrain squealed out of himself quietly.

"So is that it, then?" Gorim asked, pointing at the trunk of the young Elder tree.

"It's a piece of wood. Good for fire for all I care," Thorgar noted.

"To you, perhaps," said Fashtar in return. "To me, this piece of wood is the core structure for one of the most powerful artifacts a wizard could ever hope to own in his lifetime. It's a real shame that Mr Menz damaged it severely. What was he thinking?"

"That something like this shouldn't be in the hands of powerful evil men such as yourself, Fashtar?" Jarlaxle asked him.

"I never planned for this Staff to be in my personal possession," the gith countered. "I'm merely the one who will reactivate it so it can be used in the hands of someone... who truly needs it."

The drow merely smiled in return and then spoke, "You now have the wood. Now what else is needed for rebuilding it?"

"I will not say that in open conversation. I'd rather say that under specific conditions that would prevent eavesdroppers or someone trying to steal the powerful artifact listening in. Now, is there something we need to do at the moment?"

"ELVES!" Huelun screamed at them and got down to the rest, whilst arrows whistled over their head and the cries of warriors could be heard not far away.

"Right, forgot that. Yip," He called to the little black bunny shaped glowing... thing with a long paper-like tail and big white eyes and a glowing aura of the same color, "Get us out of here!"

"On it, Fashie!" The little Warp-Aci replied happily and they all disappeared from the forest of the wild elves...

* * *

...only to end up on a tropical island, which was where they didn't want to be.

"Yip, I'm gonna have to teach you advanced geography of Toril one of these days, okay?" Fashtar asked his little familiar.

"Yeah, I'd appreciate that, please."

_**Taking a look at two Masters...**_

In his private chambers of the compound, Quenthel marched in to see Gromph standing by a lantern, to read a book and for once, see him having trouble with it. As she was Matron, it was her right to go anywhere in the compound, even if he was the more powerful in his own chambers. "Scouts have returned from their patrols," she told him, but of course he already knew their reports.

"There is a githyanki army at Dead Dragon's Gorge." He closed the book and put it down on the table. "Twenty-four thousand of them, along with two thousand maintenance workers to keep the soldiers supplied with food, bandages and ammunition."

Quenthel stared at him in utter belief. "And more than half of that number are armed with devices scouts claim they have not seen before. Hand-held weapons that function like crossbows, only they don't seem to need to reload the same weapons for a short while. There are also reports of some construction going on in their camp."

"A portal, most likely," the archmage replied to her.

"Menzoberranzan is under siege." Quenthel's tone carried a hint of concern. "I can scarcely imagine what they would do if that human girl actually got hurt."

"They're taking precautions, that is all there is to it." Gromph walked over to a bookshelf and levitated himself up to take a large collection of books. "As long as we fulfill our contract with them, they will not attack."

"The Council will demand answers." For once, she took the books from him and put them on the desk. "Soon, all of the city will know of her and some will take steps to ensure that she suffers a death through an "incurable disease" whilst being here, even with the githyanki threat merely six days away."

"And then they will have doomed the city," he said in conclusion. "Miyazaki will stay inside these walls for seven years. I decided that much about her so far."

"And I will need to address the Council about her," said the matron mother. "Speaking of her, how do you find Miyazaki so far after only two days?"

Gromph kept quiet for a small while to pick the right words but this being Quenthel as the matron, it only lasted for about three seconds before he said, "Miyazaki is in basic terms the... "perfect" apprentice to a wizard. Inquisitive only when the need arises, performs the duties given onto her and performs them well. So far, she has only been instructed to read certain sections in books I have given her and to recite lines I choose." There was a pause as the matron stared at him deadpanned. "Flawless. She even noted that there were lines that were not among the sections I selected."

"I'm sensing a string of weaknesses that would make it worse for her part here," Quenthel said.

"Hune called her in short, "Very naïve." I am more than inclined to think the same. It's obvious that Miyazaki grew up with loving parents, good friends around her. No doubt she was raised in a society that supported a belief that there is good in all things and that if one was given a chance they would prove themselves worthy of being part of the commune."

"Eurgh," The matron groaned loudly.

"This has, of course, rendered the girl highly idealistic and _dangerously_ naïve," he told her. "She hasn't been exposed to a society like ours nor has she seen true evil. She has seen evil in front of her, I can tell that much, but evil that was only merely... influenced by outside experiences and situations calling for drastic measures. She is aware that there is evil in the universe but not the kind that we are."

"This keeps getting better and better," she said. "She will not walk away from this city and remain the same."

"You speak like you are concerned," he told her.

"For a human? Forget it. She won't stay the same and it should be good for her own sake. One cannot win a war by being kind."

"Maybe we should try it?" He asked.

"Don't be an idiot, Gromph." Quenthel stared at her brother with anger for suggesting that. "That is not the way of the drow. We shall rule the Underdark by right of conquest, as it should be." Then she took a deep breath. "How do you put up with her?"

"We leave personal opinions out," he first told his sister.

Given that humans sleep for eight hours, that gave Gromph considerable time to himself. They would begin at about seven hours after the Narbondel has been lit and they'd go on until there are three hours left until he needed to relight it. That gives her two hours to herself, one at the start of the cycle and one before she goes to sleep. It is not perfect, but given the conditions that she was in, it was reasonable. He wasn't planning on holding many lessons with her at all, just when he deemed it a necessity. She knew of this of course, since he told her that he would only leave instructions for her to complete during the cycles. The less she came into contact with their society, the better, she concluded.

"As long as we maintain that ideal between us, there should be little trouble," he said.

"Speaking of trouble, what was that book you were reading?"

"One of her spellbooks. She said it was the basic one for all magi. She allowed me to read it," he told her. "It is a different language so I am having trouble understanding it." A pause came before he added, "A very subtle yet efficient prank. She knew I wouldn't be able to read."

Quenthel allowed herself a smile. The two of them hated one another as much as they were born of the same mother so they would grab any chance they could get to please themselves at the other's misfortune. And if it weren't for Gromph's competence and power as a wizard she would have had him executed the minute she became matron mother over the house.

Still, she wouldn't allow Miyazaki to have an easy time here in her city. The human meant very little to her in very few senses except politically. Following the war, Menzoberranzan had fallen on hard times, allowing the rise of several noble houses through the ranks at the cost of depletion of slaves and labor workers. Several merchant houses stayed neutral still but they had been found to be in huge demand by the nobles. This contract with the gith would allow them to get strong again. But Fashtar's words were still ringing clearly in her memory. She would need to speak directly to Lolth about how to unite the city and the Underdark.

"Where is the girl, anyway?" She asked the archmage.

Gromph revealed his large crystal mirror to her first. "I've kept a watch over her for some time and she seems to have developed a small interest in our House chapel. Nothing serious but she knows that if she is caught there then she would be severely punished by Sos'Umptu." Then he spoke the words to activate the mirror to... reveal the inside of the chapel.

To be more specific, the two of them saw that little kobold slave that Miyazaki had tamed the day she arrived inside the chapel, actively taunting their sibling Sos'Umptu right in front of her. "Is that slave willing to commit suicide?" Quenthel asked.

"That or he's been told to entertain her," Gromph replied in a deadpanned matter.

Sos'Umptu had evidently not called for the kobold and was about to strike him down with her whip when she jerked her head back, confusing the two spectators. Then she fell over, revealing Miyazaki behind with a blunt instrument in hand.

"She actually _dared _to strike a priestess of Lolth?" Quenthel asked outraged. "From behind, even!"

"Shh," he hushed her. "Let's have things unfold for the moment." He wasn't disappointed with what he saw. Miyazaki had penetrated the chapel without being seen and now stood before the great moving figure of Lolth herself, a permanent illusion that Gromph had created for his mother as a tribute to the goddess. Truth was, he had based it on a former mistress of his (sexual, that is), who had even given a daughter to him. Trouble was, he had to kill her in order to claim the girl but that was politics in this city.

Then he noticed that his apprentice had pulled out a card that had herself with odd writing on it. The matron noticed it as well and was confused.

* * *

Nodoka gave a gulp as she went through with this. "Lolth," she addressed the room but focused on the giant moving figure. "I know that you are in here. I figured that the first house of this city would have been in favor with you. _Adeat."_ Her artifact book came out. "I do not mean any harm to you by doing this... but I ask you now to give me your current plans for the moment."

At first, nothing. But then, the entire diary was filled with words that she could read and even covered the endpapers of it. It was filled to the brim with writings which to an outsider made almost no sense but to her, it was pretty much organized. "I...I did it. I got the plans of Lolth in here."

Immediately, she also heard inside her head, _Naive girl. Do not get caught or punishment shall occur._ The voice in her head was perfectly clear, female and not one she had heard before from anywhere. To make it worse on two points, she noticed that even if it was for an instant, the moving illusion figure was staring at _her_ with clear golden eyes.

Secondly, she noticed scrying on her at the same time. "Uh oh, we've been found... come on, Gracknir, we're leaving right now!"

"Eh?" The little kobold wondered at his mistress' panic but he didn't have time to ask as she ran out of there so he followed her.

* * *

Both of them were for a moment, stunned. Not only had they seen that the card had turned into a book, the apprentice had also managed to read _Lolth's_ mind.

"How could that possibly have happened?" Quenthel demanded to know with no one able to answer her. "She isn't even gifted with clerical powers and yet she managed to get the words of the Spider Queen like it was easy! That's not possible by any laws of magic that we know of! Gro-" she noticed that her brother was writing down what he had seen in there. "What are you doing?"

"Getting myself an answer to your question, Matron," he answered. When he finished writing it down, he addressed her again. "I believe that while you say it's not possible by any laws of magic we know of, Miyazaki does happen to have off-world magic. Different magic, different laws."

Quenthel was quiet for a moment. "You mean that it was the laws of _her_ world that allowed that to happen?"

"Possibly." He held up the list for her to see. "What we saw was most likely an artifact, granted to her through some law of magic from her world. I can casually acquire the information I need to know about it from her. In full detail, we saw that it is likely one that can give one the ability to literally read minds. In other words, that is a highly powerful Divination artifact she possesses."

"And how does it work?"

"I do not know," he honestly told her. "But what I do know is this; it was not our scrying on her that she discovered."

Now Quenthel froze up. The magic that Miyazaki wielded was unique in Menzoberranzan and if it was unique in this city, you had an advantage over your opponents. It was no surprise at all that they expected someone within the house of Baenre to try and master it by themselves for themselves. However, if the scryer came from outside the house... "We need to discover the source of that scryer. If it comes from outside the house-"

"We can best hope it's from a vassal house," he cut her short, finishing her sentence at the same time. Quenthel left the room, leaving the archmage in his study. He would pay heed to the unknown scryer soon enough and expect it to be someone from either inside the house or someone he had known to work with in the past. He could influence them to not pay his "apprentice" any heed for the time she was down here.

But more importantly at the moment, he was more interested in Miyazaki's artifact. Several questions went through his head. What magic allows her to use it, how is it performed, what does one do to master it, but one existed above those...

_How can I use it for myself?_

* * *

So far, she hadn't been discovered. That was good, it'd be a pain to be found out after learning of a little transaction of humans and then there was the army at Dead Dragon's Gorge. To think that an army had gathered merely six days away was nearly appalling, but she could handle herself.

Looking into the bowl filled with clean water, she cursed herself for being discovered by the human girl. Few could detect her, though the archmage was among them. She could expect him to look at her soon enough once he was done with his own investigation. Naturally, she thought.

But of course, he must have noticed the girl's book as well. She smiled and decided to see what she could learn about it. Of course, she needed an opportunity first to get close. She couldn't just walk to House Baenre and ask, "Could I see your human apprentice?" If it was that easy then the whole damn city would try it.

Many who would notice the girl in the near future would certainly try to steal her away from the Baenre compound and force the information out of her and then kill her once they were finished. She, of course, wouldn't try something that foolish. Something subtle, undetectable even by magical means.

She allowed a small smile as she clutched her amulet. "Well, well, well," she said softly as she saw the human run back to her quarters for hiding and studies, followed by her new loyal slave. "It seems these coming years are going to be very interesting. I'll keep an eye on you for now.

"And else can I say for now, except," Shakti, first in line to become the next Matron of House Hunzrin, eleventh house, priestess of both Lolth and Vheraun, and probably the most ingenious priestess of the Spider Queen said to someone looking on. _"It's good to be back."_

_**Aboard the GPS mark II**_

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"How many times do I have to say it, Paru? No means no," said Spanners.

"Come on," Haruna protested at his denial. "I'm not gonna have fun with the dreadnought, I promise."

"Really?" He asked as the group had gathered before the aforementioned machine. "Then what about all that "List of things I've always wanted to do at least once" I overheard you talking about?"

"Hey, don't you have one of those lying around, yourself? Every engineer practically dreams of piloting their devices. I swear, you get to pilot the GPS if you let me give the dreadnought for this test drive," she said.

"First off, I do have a list like that," he answered her. "But I'm not as enthusiastic about it as you are. Second, I didn't build the dreadnought."

"But you took it apart and put it together to see if everything would work," she countered whilst the others just watched the two argue.

"I did, just because Karl didn't pack a manual for this thing. And I'm not interested in piloting the ship. I feel more comfortable down here."

"Then why are you letting Bea of all people pilot the thing first?" Haruna questioned his decision. "She's obviously not the best choice for this."

"Well, I would have chosen Asuna, were she here to begin with," said Andreas. "But she's not here and I'd rather see its performance from the outside. Therefore, as a _reliable_ choice, Miss Monroe was available. Besides, Yue didn't want to."

"Logically speaking, of course, one should try something after it's been confirmed to be safe," Yue said in her case. "Andreas-san approached me first and I declined politely with good reason."

"You went to Yue," Haruna said deadpanned.

"It's my choice, Haruna. And you seemed too anxious to try it. That screams "Danger" in my book." Then he turned to the dreadnought and heaved the door up. "A hand here to close this, please."

Emily came up along with Yue and they closed the cockpit of the machine, leaving Bea inside. The dreadnought in question was no doubt about 4 meters tall, standing on a pair of mechanical legs the size of tree trunks, supporting a massive square-formed upper torso. It held up two great arms, each having five fingers in contrast to what the engineer had seen pictures of 40k dreadnoughts. The cockpit, which looked more of a sarcophagus, was large in itself, forged by hand out of adamantine, a metal alloy Karl claimed he had mastered years ago when no one else could. The whole machine fired up and Bea took its first step forward gently, allowing the others time to get to a safe area. The upper torso rotated 360 degrees to the left as well when it stood still.

"Interesting so far, Stonegarden," said Fate, looking over from the entrance to the cargo hold. "Did you find anything that could be tweaked for higher efficiency while you were dismantling it?"

"A few things," he answered. "Odd thing was that he didn't give us a manual."

"_He did pack one,"_ Beatrix suddenly cut into their conversation in a much deeper voice than what she normally had. _"Whilst not in paperback version, he seems to have had it programmed into the dreadnought, emerging when you close the cockpit."_

There was a small moment of silence as the information sunk in. Then Haruna spoke up, "Wait... we waited in vain to start that up?"

"I did all that work for nothing?" Andreas asked out loud.

Fate hummed for a second before countering, "Perhaps not entirely. We just did not see this. Besides, I didn't have plans to deploy the dreadnought for some considerate time. So what Stonegarden did may have seemed futile in the short term but he did improve it. Once we run into a situation where we need it, we will use it."

"Then at least can I have a go in it for when we do use it, because I just know that we will use it whilst on this planet," Haruna said. "And I know that we'll be here for some time."

Spanners finally sighed and shrugged. "I guess it cannot be helped. Fine, you get to use it, but only when I say it's good to. I'll find some opportunity for you."

"Thank you!" Haruna exclaimed in joy and hugged the engineer tightly, showering him with "Thank you" over and over again.

"Saotome-san!" Emily tried to separate the two whilst Fate decided to leave the cargo hold. "That is not an appropriate thing to do to a fellow crewmember. Release him this instant!"

Yue sighed and followed the commander as well out of the cargo hold.

_**Back to Honya**_

"Thank you for your patronage and cooperation, miss," said the little imp, holding a file that contained the written form of what the Spider Queen had planned for the next thirty years. "Boss wishes to thank you and ensures you that you won't have to attempt this again. At least not with Lolth."

"That's good to know," said Nodoka and the imp disappeared in an Apparition. She sighed heavily. It was such a shock that she received a call on a cell phone she hadn't seen before and hear Asmodeus' voice and hear a request to read Lolth's mind as a starting point of her work for him.

At least he was good enough to give details on how to possibly obtain it the best. Lolth was a very troublesome deity to figure out, according to him. Nodoka didn't want to do with that again whilst in Menzoberranzan, or even at all! The bookworm could still hear that frightening voice in her head, echoing through her head with the same words over and over again.

"Mistress?" Gracknir asked her, snapping her out of her frightened mood. He looked very concerned about her well being. She took a deep breath and stroked his head a little.

"I'm fine, Gracknir," she told him, even if it was a white lie. "Just... tired after this cycle's events, that's all."

"Gracknir better go and get you something to eat. Would Mistress like having some bread before turning in?"

"No thank you, I-" A knock on her door came and cut her off, before it opened up to reveal Quenthel marching in, holding a glass jar filled with green salve and a normal whip on her hip (hey, that rhymes). She didn't seem glad as she walked in. Nodoka rushed up to her feet to bow and Gracknir went down on all four to kneel. "Matron!"

"Matron... what?" The drow asked of her.

Nodoka gulped quietly first before correcting herself. "Matron Baenre." Then she rose to look at the older woman. "What seems to be the occurrence?"

Quenthel quietly walked up to the desk and put the glass jar on it before replying, "The occurrence being that not so long ago, my younger sister Sos'Umptu, who is caretaker for the house chapel, was rendered unconscious from behind. She cannot recall much, nor can she point fingers, figuratively speaking. She does however, remember that a kobold slave managed to sneak in... and taunt her openly."

Nodoka kept quiet, though the drow noticed that she had gone stiff and continued, "Sos'Umptu is being taken care of right now, whilst I've ordered that every kobold slave that belongs to house Baenre be disciplined as one of them had trespassed on hallowed ground for us drow. None shall be killed, however. Upon learning that you had one for yourself, I came here to administer his punishment myself, lest the soldiers get too rough with him and interrupt your studies. Though I wonder, on a political note..." she turned to the girl. "Does your home world allow slavery?"

Not sure where she was going, Nodoka answered her truthfully. "Well, my homeland doesn't support it legally, but the world of magic allows it, at least. Differently, but it's slavery."

"And what would the laws say about slavery there?" The matron asked of her.

"Well," the bookworm started. "it does state that slaves ought to obey their masters with little to no questions, on the conditions that the masters supply them with a home, food, clothing and well being to ensure that the slave can work efficiently until the time when they are released."

"And in the event that a slave misbehaves, how would punishment be distributed?" Quenthel asked, out of curiosity.

Nodoka gulped, wondering if she'd be forced to harm Gracknir. "A slave acting up against its master, would be punished by the master and no one would make it a large issue. But if a slave were to act up against someone else, then the master would be at fault for poor training."

Quenthel nodded, starting to understand that kind of slavery. "Now... one last question. In that the slave misbehaves against another and the master is accused of training him poorly... would that mean that the master is punished for failing at training the slave?"

"No!" Nodoka exclaimed loudly but retracted to her normal quiet tone. "I mean... it hasn't happened before that a master is punished for not training the slave properly. Instead, he's made more an embarrassment to society."

"Well, that hardly seems fair," said the drow. "A master of a slave ought to be punished as well for failing his duty. As I understand humans, some societies makes sure that equality exists among everybody, so in theory, the master should be punished for failing his duty. The master can afterward ensure that the servant remembers his proper place. Does that sound fair to you, in a way?"

Nodoka kept quiet for a brief second before nodding at the matron. "Yes... it does sound fair. It would make people, both master and slave, equal to laws of punishment. So in this case... I'll take responsibility for Gracknir's actions."

"Gracknir?"

"That is his name," Nodoka said.

"Fair enough, I suppose," Quenthel said and stepped back a few steps. "I trust you are at least familiar with how this is used?" She produced the whip from her hip (again, rhymes) and displayed it in front of the bookworm's eyes. Telling Gracknir that it would be alright, Nodoka started to strip of her upper clothing and then leaned on the desk, revealing her bare back. Before she started, Quenthel told the girl. "The glass jar is filled with healing salve, so... Gracknir can aid you once this is over. Furthermore..." She snapped the whip up and struck the human's back violently. "I think it's due time you know your place here in Menzoberranzan."

Four more lashes came. No screams followed each.

_**On Earth**_

"You are of course, familiar with what a thank-you-date means, right Negi?" Aristodemus asked him when they were alone in the teachers' lounge.

"Yes," the boy answered at first but after a moment of silent staring from the older man, he corrected, "Okay, no. I mean... I have been on dates before but those weren't exactly... specific kind... kind of dates."

"Oookay," the spartan said. "A thank-you-date that you take a girl out on basically means that you have to do what she wants you to. In Alicia's case... well, we can be fortunate that it would only be very minor things in comparison to what older girls would ask of you."

"I know that," the young boy said in relief. Chamo had a few "fu-fu-fus" to himself.

"Aniki, you shouldn't sound so down. Think of it as a different experience. Alicia-jouchan is younger than you and wouldn't know a lot about the stuff you're used to. And she is quite cute too, maybe a pactio wouldn't be out of the question-"

"**I'll** be the judge of that," Aris cut off the ermine. "She may not be of blood to me, but Alicia is still my daughter and I still make the hard decisions regarding her growth." Then he sighed heavily. "Sorry. I've been on edge ever since I got told some uncomfortable news."

Chamo leered at him. "You mean the news that Precia Testarossa-san is with your..."

"I know!" Aris said sternly. "I know. Oh, Ahura Mazda, how could I have been so stupid? I mean, how is that even possible? It's very rare for a woman to get that condition in her fifties. How did it happen?" When Negi opened his mouth, Aris cut him off first. "If you're going to bring up exactly how it is entirely possible, you're not helping."

Negi closed his mouth. Then he thought of something else to talk about. "Uh, something unrelated but I just need to know this one. How is it that you're the Grandmaster of the Vesper Knights and Strategou of the Spartan Hounds at the same time?"

Aris looked at him strangely for a moment. "You sure you want to know that?"

"Just curious, that's all."

Aris pondered before shaking his head. "That's a story for another time. I doubt you'd be interested to hear it all." Then his cell phone rang. It was a text message. Upon reading it he was checking himself with his free hand after something and found something on the back of his neck. A small microphone. "Apparently, Alicia has been listening on us and is now reported squealing up and down along Sakura Lane."

"Hmm, that somehow doesn't really surprise me," Negi said and the old man stared at him. "I had a talk with her mother before my accident. I'm pretty much the only boy she can form a proper bond to, according to Precia-san. Now I'm starting to think it's going above Puppy Love."

"Right." Aris then switched to texting on his cell and said aloud which was certainly directed to Alicia, "Finish your homework first. Luv, Dad." After he sent the text message, he got up from his desk and got his coat. "I'd best get going. Be nice to Alicia, treat her as a gentleman, as always, and make sure that she's back by at least 10 pm." Before he walked out the door to the teacher's lounge, he stopped and simply said, "The Hounds grew around me."

Before Negi could ask the meaning of that, the Spartan was already out of the door. "Aniki, I'll go tell the girls that you need to get prepared for this."

_Oh no,_ Negi wanted to say out loud, but even so and even with half the class off on an off-world adventure, they'd be sure to help him anyway. "Chamo-kun, it's gonna be just one date with a girl younger than me for a change. What's the worst that could happen tomorrow?"

**A/N: **_Oh, God. He did not just say that, did he?_


	48. Picking up speed

Dwarfs were an odd bunch. In particular, their blacksmiths.

They would spend their centuries of living producing weapons and armor of nearly an unrivaled quality, only matched by drow with their elegance and focus on agility, the githyanki for their blend of sturdiness and elegance and finally the occasional human who had "a knack" for smithing.

However, the dwarfs had an ability that the others did not have. Just once in their lives, a dwarven blacksmith would feel a specific need to create a specifically unique item. A weapon or an armor that would be much more better than anything they would ever create again in their entire life.

That would probably be the one time they would feel truly disappointed, because they would never create an item that came anywhere near this particular one.

In the old fortress and traditional dwarven home of Mithral Hall, famed throughout the countries as _the_ dwarven fortress and filled and ruled by goodness, one particularly good smith called Mordin Dolval was picking out the finest materials he had ever laid eyes on. Others would try to commit murder to obtain these materials, which is why he had asked their local hero to guard him while he gathered them for his project.

Dolval simply said that his day to make his weapon had come and that convinced their hero to accompany him long enough until it was time to forge the item. By a long standing tradition amidst the dwarfs, no one was allowed to witness the forging process, lest their secrets be exposed.

A heavy bar of the purest adamantine, a smaller one of Eternium metal (which was – _by all means –_ not easy to obtain) and a small branch of Silverwood, something a craftsman would absolutely treat with the highest respect, were the crafting materials needed for this. Along with a silver scroll tube capped on one end by a diamond and a small leather bag.

Mordin did not know exactly why he had a sword in mind for this but he knew something out of this: It was not meant to be used in the hands of dwarfs. Someone else was going to have it and they would find it purely perfect for their needs should they ever have it.

Leaving the heavily defended fortress, he and his guard walked out to the top of the mountain in which Mithral Hall was built and they found a small cave that Mordin had already worked on. A small forge, complete with an anvil and heavy hammer, a whetstone to sharpen the blade and a furnace with a bellow, along with a tool bench. A small temple to a blacksmith willing to make sharp weapons.

"I go from 'ere, Drizzt," Mordin told his friend and bodyguard. "Ye know 'ow it goes."

"Of course," said the taller one. "I'll be keeping orcs and goblins off you while you work." The hero then wandered off and retracted his bow to keep an eye out.

Mordin on the other hand, began to work on what would possibly be the last weapon he'll have ever made in his life...

_**Somewhere else at the time**_

The six of them were stalking a mountain range somewhere far away from Mithral Hall's mountains and on the lookout for metal as well.

Fashtar led his ragtag team across the range in search of the second material needed to rebuild the Staff. It was consequential to the Plan of his. As long as they didn't ask questions about it and the payment as promised, things were looking good.

...right up until that band of stone giants that appeared over the next ridge.

"Things just aren't ever going to be easy for us, are they?" Jarlaxle asked out loudly, right before the giants decided to have fun and throw boulders at them.

"Cover!" Huelun called immediately and they all rushed down behind boulders in the way or against the cliff wall. She retracted her bow whilst Nailbrain took out a weird contraption next to her. Resembling a crossbow but lacking its traditional bow on the front, it did look like something he would make.

On the other side, against the wall, Fashtar retrieved something small and colorful, resembling Nailbrain's contraption, but being the size of a hand crossbow instead. "I'll give us cover fire," the githyanki called to them. "Jarl, Thorgar, you two go around and flank them."

"You're the wizard," Huelun shouted at him. "I thought you were gonna use spells on them!"

"Too long," he retorted and then stepped out of cover to fire at the giants. His Tempest submachine gun didn't give off much sound but it certainly gave off scores of shaved metal against the opposition. The giants cried in pain at the bullets hitting their skin. One of them actually cried in broken Common,

"Ow! I hate you!" And then he set about to toss the biggest boulder of them all right on top of the mean little man with the stinging metal.

Huelun loosed an arrow against the giant's throat when she had the chance and properly calculated shots hit their aim, only slightly off the mark. Nailbrain aided by shooting with his contraption against the giant's wrists, hoping to have them drop the boulders on them instead of throwing them on the group. He got lucky only once, though, as this was the first time he was in actual life-threatening combat.

Fortunately, the giants had neglected that two more small people were there and neither seemed easy to kill. Thorgar roared with anger as he swung his warhammer against the first giant's head and cracked it wide open.

Jarlaxle was smaller and didn't yell a battle cry at them, but he was fast with his rapier blade. Using the agility of his people, the brightly colorful clad dark elf jumped from giant to giant and thrust his sword into their throats, hoping to ensure that they bled to death fast. One of the stone giants managed to take hold of his leg and throw him to the ground hard. "Got you now, tiny black man," it said slamming his fists together as it advanced on him. "Got nowhere to run now."

"True, but you know what they say when you're cornered," the drow retorted crawling backwards whilst the others in his gang were actually winning against the giants.

"Huh?"

"When you are in a position once there is no escape, you will prefer death to flight," Jarlaxle calmly said to the giant.

"Ooh, I like the sound of that," the giant said and advanced closer. Close enough for the drow to land a direct hit with a lightning bolt wand in the face, killing the giant instantly.

"I didn't say that I preferred my death to flight." Jarlaxle got up with ease and walked over to the others. "How's it going?"

"We... pretty much stumbled upon the iron," said Gorim, who had been of little use to the battle and discovered what they were looking for in the first place. "If it hadn't been for those giants, we'd have walked right past it."

"For once, things did go easy for us," said Fashtar and retrieved a pickaxe from one of his bags of Holding. "We need to go deeper than this, though."

"Let me, Mr Fashtar," said Thorgar and took the pickaxe to starting hacking away at the metal vein.

"One question, boss," Huelun asked him. "How pure and unoxidized iron did we need again for this?"

"Purest," Fashtar merely said. "Should be only about 4 meters in before we hit it."

"We'll keep our eyes peeled for more giants," she replied and the rest of the group agreed with that, splitting up. Fashtar stayed behind to watch Thorgar at work.

* * *

"First time out here?" Gorim asked the little gnome.

"Yeah," Nailbrain said. "I mean, I haven't actually done any field work or so- but I have done the odd travel to someone wanting my designs... so when Fashtar came asking for my expertise on mechanics and offered me a chance to come along and see what I could invent whilst we're out here, I got the big thrills. He is such a nice person."

"I find him reasonable, at least," the dwarf said in return. "I didn't get the thrills when he hired me along for this but my home town could do with the money that he offered me."

"What?"

"Have you ever heard of the term, "Socialism" where you come from?" Gorim asked the little gnome. When Nailbrain shook his head, the dwarf continued, "Fashtar called me a socialist when I explained my reasons. He explained calmly that in a rough sense of it, socialism is that wealth in a society is equally shared amongst the populace and that the state has the right to seize property for the common good. Workers are also allowed to make their own conditions with their masters, allowing for a material beneficial resolution for the community."

"Huh," said Nailbrain. "That sounds like a few societies around Toril I know of. That how your home town works like as well?"

"Yes. I know that I am not exactly the best contributing member of our society and somebody had to keep the records in our community, but since he asked me and requested the elder for permission, I guess I went straight to become the most important figure to the town." Gorim looked away from the gnome to see if there was any more danger about. "I'm not proud of the matter, nor would I deny it."

"So you're here for your home." Nailbrain stopped to check up on his contraption. "Sounds nice."

* * *

_Of all three I could have gotten stuck with, it had to be him,_ Huelun thought as she and Jarlaxle walked together, looking for trouble that could jeopardize their mission up here. _The gods are playing a hideous prank on me._

Jarlaxle took the opportunity to study his partner (non-romantic, that is) and found that whilst flat-chested, she was very slim and athletic. The exotic woman most likely grew up in a society where men and women shared equal burdens of labor and she kept herself mostly to hunting and fighting alongside the warriors.

Well, muscles aside, she was a real beauty.

"You know, a lot of people have been wrong about me before," Jarlaxle broke the ice.

"W-what?" Huelun asked confounded.

"I have eyes," he told her. "I noticed that you have been looking at me with hostile intentions."

"You're drow," she told him in return. "Do I need another reason to not trust you?"

"Perhaps that is a fair point but you are making the very classical mistake of mistrusting someone just because they're a different race. I'm quite renowned myself for being considerate to others." Jarlaxle picked out one of his many wands and pointed at random, expecting a giant to pop out from behind the ridges. "I have been praised by King Gareth Dragonsbane, you know."

"Look." Huelun turned her bow on him. "I don't really care who you are, Jarlaxle. What matters to me is the payment I receive once that staff is completed. That's all there is to it. And I wouldn't exactly trust your kind either to take care of someone for years and expect it all to go smoothly." Then she realized that she had let something slip and retracted herself.

"Aah, I see," Jarlaxle said shortly.

"No, you don't." Her tone betrayed herself.

"You are actually worried about the girl we left in Menzoberranzan," he told her and she shivered as he saw through her. "Well, now I'm certainly getting a clearer picture of you."

"And what makes you even care? You're drow. That's all I need to know about you." Huelun started pacing back and forth. "I was living a good and normal life before I got swung into this adventure of the boss. They should have sent someone else but no, I got the lucky number just because I was better than the other hunters, only they lacked the balls to acknowledge that. Yet-"

She was cut off abruptly by the drow man kissing her on the mouth. It was like that for a few seconds before she broke it off. "What?"

"You worry too much. Sometimes it just slips your mind and you say it because you need someone to listen," Jarlaxle told her.

"No, no, why the kiss?"

"I thought it would calm you down."

Huelun sighed and looked away. Then quietly she said, "It didn't. How are you gonna calm me down after this?"

"Ah, now that is easy," he said. "The one who kissed the one who was kissed offers an apology to the one who was kissed by buying them a drink at the tavern and the one who was kissed considers their emotions toward the one who kissed and then gives their answer to the one who kissed."

The female warrior was quiet for a few moments to let that sink in. "...So you'll be buying me a drink when we get back to town?"

"Exactly," he confirmed for her. "I'll even get you the best seat in the tavern."

Huelun took a deep breath. "Just... one drink. And I prefer a seat where I can get a full overview of the tavern with no blind spots."

"Done," he told her and they walked on, missing one giant that somehow managed to sneak past them.

* * *

"Hey, I think I reached it," Thorgar said after a long thirty minutes of hacking through the rock.

"You certain?" Fashtar asked.

"You did say about four meters in." When Fashtar had a look he found that the half-giant was right. The iron composition in the vein was about 100 percent pure now. "Weird thing is, there's this large purple crystal right next to it. I don't what that is."

Fashtar had a look at that as well. "Give me the pickaxe," he said and when he had it he started hacking around the crystal for a while. It came loose eventually. "I can't say I haven't seen something similar to it before. But there is something odd about this crystal..."

"If you don't mind, I'll think I'll take that crystal," a new deep and strong voice said above them and they saw a new giant. This was not a stone giant. If it was a golem it would be one that was sentient on its own. Arguably it was tall and had massive arms, its right arm having a large cannon built onto it. The head featured moving metallic eyebrows and the eyes were crimson red. If that wasn't enough to be frightening, it had a mouth that resembled a shark's.

"Ooooh," Fashtar said after realizing who he was seeing. And then he just tossed it up so the large figure could catch it with its left hand.

"A wise decision," the great golem said and then walked away with large thudding steps.

"How did that thing manage to sneak up on us?" Thorgar asked after he was sure it couldn't hear him.

"You really don't want to know the answer to that one," said the githyanki. "I'm just glad that he was in a merciful mood this time."

Thorgar let that sink in for a moment whilst Fashtar began hacking at the iron vein to get a decent sized rock out of it. "Wait, you know what that is?"

"Not What, Who." Fashtar stopped for a moment and put the pickaxe down. "I'm not gonna say any names but he is one of many individuals I have done business with. And trust me, he is not one of the friendliest of folks."

"Is he now? Couldn't you have asked him instead for this endeavor?"

"If I could, I wouldn't have bothered with you then, now would I?" Fashtar picked up the tool again and kept up the hacking until a decently sized chunk of it came off. "There. Better put it in a box I've prepared before it's exposed to oxidation."

"I got it." Thorgar took the rock and placed it in the box as soon as the githyanki wizard had put it out. "Heh, this must be the easiest job ever so far."

"Oh no, this is just the easy part. The hard part's gonna make fighting dragons easy in comparison," Fashtar told him. "Gathering all the physical material is easy. It's getting the other stuff that makes it an artifact that's gonna be trickier."

"Um, Fashtar?" Jarlaxle called over the mountain range. "Have you by any chance noticed a giant walking around these parts? Huelun and I seemed to have missed one when we did a count of them when they attacked and when we killed them."

"If you're talking about the giant made of metal with big red eyes, then no," Fashtar called back to the drow. "He's not interested in us."

"...Completely different giant here, made of flesh!"

"Made of- Not good." Not sooner had the gith uttered before a big wooden club came down upon the two of them, narrowly missing Thorgar by an inch. "Not good! Contact!"

"Smash puny intruders!" The giant cried and tried to either smash them with his club or stomp them under his foot. "Hold still!"

"Yeah, like that's a good idea when someone's trying to kill you!" Fashtar cried back at it. "Where are you guys!"

An arrow fixating itself into the giant's shoulder answered him as Huelun and the drow rushed to them with their weapons prepared. Another from a different direction revealed Nailbrain and Gorim. The six of them engaged the giant in their own separate way.

"You squish my friends, I SQUISH YOU!" the giant cried in rage, ignoring the pain and swatting away Gorim before grabbing Fashtar by the torso and flinging him about against the others.

"Squishy wizard make poor weapon," Fashtar kept crying at the time to the giant constantly. "Squishy wizard make poor weapon!"

"Shoot that thing already," Nailbrain cried to Huelun.

"I can't! I might hit the boss!"

Then a powerful energy blast slammed right into the giant's torso, making it stumble about whilst holding onto the gith before it tumbled over the edge and fell down the mountain slope. Whilst the others rushed to see over the edge Thorgar took a look at where the blast came from.

The giant metal golem had seen the whole battle and just shot the giant without a second thought. Their eyes connected for a moment and the golem's eyes narrowed on him before walking away again.

"Fashtar!" Jarlaxle cried as he and Huelun slided against the mountain surface, jumping from one holding surface to another to get down to the corpse. They were hoping that it would just be one corpse down at the bottom.

"Can you see him yet?" Gorim called to them.

"Not yet," Huelun called back. "Come on, boss. Don't you dare be dead. Don't you dare."

"You're only worried about the paycheck," Jarlaxle stated flatly.

"Damn right. If he's dead, then how am I supposed to return home?" They got down and found the giant's corpse lying motionless with his left arm in which he had held Fashtar trapped under his massive bodyweight. "Don't suppose you have something that allows greater strength?"

"Sadly no," Jarlaxle replied and then Thorgar got down. "Ah, our friendly half-giant companion. Care to give a hand here?"

Nodding, Thorgar walked over to a suitable place to lift and then heaved with everything he had.

They saw Fashtar being motionless under the giant and whilst he was alive, badly injured...

_**Somewhere completely different**_

The archmage stepped into the library and found... a complete mess of things.

Gromph sighed softly as he saw that the house library had been turned quickly down fast and all the loose bookshelves had fallen down upon each other. Some of the house soldiers were already there aiding some of the house wizards. Nauzhror, his first cousin and good with abjurations, walked up to him and stated a report,

"Archmage, we have no idea how this incident happened. Several-"

"Reasons need be seen first before fingers can be pointed in this case," Gromph cut him off. "I don't blame anyone just yet. First we need to establish everyone who was here at the time."

It took a small while for the two to organize enough of those inside to start gathering injured people together for the females to heal them the best they could. As much as males were inferior and usable only for three things – arcane power, soldiering and breeding – they were necessary to the drow society.

Gromph's other cousin Noori, who had abandoned the clerical ways and embraced the arcane ways of the wizard – a rare trait among female drow as very few of them possessed the skills to use it – and focused mainly on divinations, was one of those inside when the bookshelves collapsed on themselves.

Apart from her, there were a few younger apprentices there as well who haven't entered the city's academy for wizards, Sorcere. Fairly young males of the family, born of some of Baenre's females and others adopted in through recognition of their talent, were gathered together. One had died in the incident. All in all, no severe losses. "Is this everybody?" Gromph asked.

The small grunting of a badger like animal came from one of the bookshelves which was elevated higher than the others and the animal kept snarling and grunting to urge them to come over there. Gromph figured as much and walked over there to be certain.

"I can trust you to not be at every disastrous area, can I, Miyazaki?" He asked her calmly whilst she was holding the bookcase up alongside her picked slave Gracknir.

"You can, Master," she replied strenuously back. "Would requesting for some aid be too much?"

Gromph motioned for a pair of guards to come over and lift the bookcase up so she and Gracknir could get out of there. Once out, she merely brushed herself off and then tending to her slave's attire. "Judging by that you held it up, I suppose teaching you martial combat would be out of the question."

"Master, with all respect," she said in return. "I was learning combat in place of evocations whilst at Greenwood's. And I must declare that this is the worst organized library I've seen."

Despite the other apprentices' protests, the archmage silenced them with a hand. "Given that you were in here when it happened... you and the other apprentices here will clean up this mess. You may not leave this room until you are finished."

"Archmage!" Several of them exclaimed in shock, barring the bookworm girl.

"And as the female here, Miyazaki will lead the rest of you. If a human finds faults in our library, then they know how to make it more efficient." With that, Gromph along with his two cousins left Nodoka in charge of four young males (each less than twenty years of age) to reorganize the house library.

The bookworm looked over her measly group of coworkers. They didn't seem too much pleased, even though they had spent their youth first polishing and studying under a harsh master (Noori). But working under a human seemed demeaning to them. Taking a silent sigh, she addressed, "The sooner we can work together, the faster we can leave the library, okay?"

"Alright," they said mutually. Then one of them asked, "Where do we start?"

This wasn't going to be easy.

"Our first goal should be to erect the bookshelves so they stand upright and then ensure that they won't do so again..." She started off, going on with their work schedule for the cycle.

_**Up on the mountain again**_

The ranger watched intensely as Mordin worked relentlessly during the hours it took him to perfect his weapon. Many dwarven smiths wouldn't take this long, though he recalled Bruenor when he had made Aegis-Fang. The cold air was working against the forge, but Mordin had the bellows keep the forge hot and steady to allow perpetual heating and molding of the metal. Drizzt had never been a smith before in his life but seeing the dwarf from a distance was starting to have an effect on him. He was beginning to understand why smiths did what they did; to see the result of their work and training of a lifetime. They were as vigilant over their work as a wizard was focused into their research of spells and magic.

Mordin hammered on the adamantine metal, folding it, heating it, hammering it again, quenching, reheating it until the loud clang of metal and the shape of a double-edged sword was beginning to appear. Mordin didn't smile for his work was far from done.

Whilst adamantine was strong and sturdy, it was far from indestructible. Proper application of strength and the right tool could still snap the blade. From what he had seen in his visions whilst preparing for and making this weapon, there were enemies who could do it in just the blink of an eye. Fortunately, he had something to make sure they couldn't. Only a true deity ought to be able to destroy the blade with this.

The Eternium metal he had acquired through intensive bargaining and even though it cost him twenty years of salary more than a century ago, was without a doubt the most valuable metal he had ever seen and laid hands upon. As its name suggested, Eternium allowed metal to remain for eons, magically repairing it on its own without maintenance. But if he made a mistake here, the sword wouldn't have that ability ever.

Some say it would be impossible. Someone like Mordin would just say, "Impossible just means ye haven't found a way to do it yet."

Putting the Eternium over the blade as they went into the forge again, Mordin heated the two metals together and when he brought it to the anvil, he hammered with such a care so that the Eternium would align itself with the central part of the sword. And then he folded it again and kept at it for approximately a hundred times more to get rid of any possible impurities.

Every dwarf who had this, had it real bad apparently, Drizzt thought. It all had to be perfect for them or it'd be ruined.

The smith quenched it for a final time and out came a true masterpiece. The blade was sleek and reflected what light was coming from the moon that had just appeared over the ridge. And still he was not done. He had made a handle and armguard before he started on the blade, after all. The handle was hand-carved from the Silverwood branch and then he had roped Drizzt into oiling and polishing it, making it smooth to the touch with a beautiful brown to it. The pommel of the handle was made from a chipped off piece of adamantine and formed in the broad shape of feather wings fanning out. The armguard was different, with its traditional up-curved crescent and angular form.

No sacred symbols were inscribed on it, as the Eternium would not allow it. Mordin did allow for something to be formed into the pommel, namely the sacred symbol of his god and the god of smiths (and dwarves, altogether) Moradin.

Now came the most difficult part. Opening his scroll tube, he pulled out a scroll filled with arcane inscriptions on it and when he next opened his pouch, he cast up glittering dust high into the dark moonlit night air and then opened the scroll. He muttered the words carefully and made sure he read them all right. If he messed up here, the artifact would be ruined.

The scroll lit up as he spoke the words and when he finished it flared up brightly, capturing all the glittering dust in the air. The magic imbued itself into the finished sword whilst knocking the dwarf back with a powerful blast. The flare blinded Drizzt's eyes and he had to shield them. When it ended, he saw Mordin Dolval lying motionless on the ground, the scroll gone and the sword lying right before the dwarf, fully complete. He had witnessed a similar event years ago with his friend Bruenor and he knew one thing for certain.

The dwarven smith was alive and not one of the dust specks had escaped the scroll's power. The sword was complete.

_**Outside the Sphere**_

The Singing Bladesmade it to Fort Basir, a Kalamaran military fortress on the country's borders. They could see that the national soldiers scowled at them for having the other races among their ranks, but were at least appreciative that a human was in command.

The Kalamaran soldiers were identical in uniform to each other, wearing double layered leather armor with vambraces and greaves reinforced by bronze plating underneath. They wore coned helmets of bronze as well with nasal guards to protect their heads. Oval shields and long spears, roughly two and a half meters long with an iron tip and a heavy counterweight at the bottom. Officers, or noblemen too young to lead armies, had some better equipment than the soldiers, wearing augmented mail armor with a few bronze plates on the shoulders, greaves and vambraces. They also wore a sleek bronze chestplate, designed to deflect blows.

Compared to them, the Blades were a ragtag group with various kinds of armor purchased individually, but most had better stuff than the soldiers. The captain of the band approached the most important group whilst the others got their instructions to dig holes for sharpened poles and trenches.

Since they were going into a battle, Rev'keth had allowed for Ookouchi to wear her black armor for when they first met each other and her spatha blade on the back. Sadly, it didn't come with a helmet. The lack of helmet had already been logged and jotted down as a complaint to Karl Gestr by Spanners. Naba was wearing her enchanted trench coat over her explorer's outfit with the satchel bag worn over the shoulder. Subtly, that ring she had was on her finger. Rumors did persist that the Witch wore a ring which allowed her to use magic in the first place, so no surprise.

Raydan had already donned his leather armor, which allowed him more freedom to move than the others. That and since it was designed to be able to be worn constantly, it made sense that he was already wearing it. He was however checking his equipment, making sure that they wouldn't fail him in the battle. Most notably, he had strapped his katana blade over his back, to allow a quick draw after he had learned how it was retracted from the sheath. Rev'keth was doing the same (checking his equipment, that is) to his outer lamellar composition and his sword and shield. He was even adding a spike to the center of the shield. And just where did he get his large helmet?

"We're here," Gareth told the group of four. "The commanding officer says he wants proof of us having the Witch in our band, so I'm putting you four on the wall to to dispense long range attack spells against the enemy."

"Who are we facing?" Raydan asked.

"Hobbos. Marauder tribe." Gareth looked out over the fort. "They and the Paragons have been at war with Kalamar as far as anyone can remember. It's due to the laws of the Githyanki that they haven't been extinguished by the kingdom thus far."

"Laws?" Chizuru asked curiously.

"Laws have been passed for the safety of the various kingdoms and domains that rest here on the surface," Rev'keth explained. "War is permitted but we have standards. War of extermination and genocide is most frowned upon and it is always a pain in the ass for the bureaucrats to fill in the paperwork that a kingdom or realm has been destroyed utterly. In the event that it has happened, the offending party is forced to pay a heavy fine or half of their forces are conscripted into the space legions to serve as penal forces. A certain amount of time later, say five years or so, the penal soldiers have a choice of either signing up full time with the legion or return to the homeworld for retirement. It's not perfect but it is efficient."

"Sounds harsh," said Akira.

"Maybe, but that's the deal." Rev'keth tended back to preparing his armor for the coming battle.

"Yes, I can certainly see the fairness in that," Raydan said smirking at the knight.

"At any rate, you four are going on the ramparts. I don't know what kind of spells the Witch can do, but I hope that they can do damage to the hobbos." The captain walked away to address orders to his own men further.

"Our first real battle..." Akira said softly, but enough for the other two to hear her. "I don't know if I could pull through for this."

"You'll be fine. Just stick to the plan and you won't have to take part in any of the close up fighting," Raydan said.

_Hoo boy,_ thought Rev. Whenever someone said something like that, it was bound by some ridiculous laws of the universe to go the other way.

_**Somewhere else at the time**_

Symon and Rad'na sat by her table looking over documents of reports happening all across Samasal, at least what they could gather on their own by paying scouts-for-hire and traveling merchants.

"Skirmishes are starting to take places already," Symon said, reading one such report. "The northern Dyke Wall is holding still as the two nations there are claiming neutrality for the sake of holding the wall from Githmir invasion."

"But equally, the western nation holding the mountain ranges are not claiming it. They want more land in the claim that they could better defend the border against Druustya to prevent an invasion coming from there," Rad'na said holding one herself. "And the Rakshasan nomads are starting to become opportunists, looting the leftovers of battles that are occurring right now. At least they hold the decency to bury the dead after looting them."

"Sent one of the Sendings to lady Hina," Jashol said when he stepped in with Ielenia. "They're safe and encountered some friends. But they hit a snag. Huttasa has been burnt to the ground and the apparent crown prince of Kalamar was killed in their movement to safer grounds. No more details about his death."

"Kalamar," the priestess groaned. "As if things could get worse. King Belemerot is not the most reasonable of monarchs. Wait, which prince?"

"Uhh, they said his name was Balamir, I think," The hunted man said.

Symon groaned this time. "Any news on the eastern front?"

"None that have yet to arrive," Rad'na said. "All out war could happen at any given time. Kas-far and his ilk are still on the loose and that other figure..."

"Drinde," Symon helped.

"Drinde should be up and about now." Rad'na rose from her seat and started pacing. "We can at least count on the sphere's external dimensional magic to keep Nodoka hidden from his sight. Thing is, if he gets here and finds the sphere, it's over."

"Speaking of the sphere, how is she doing in there now?" Jashol asked. "She should be out of school by now, right?"

"Yes." Rad'na stopped pacing and faced them. "She should be by her elected mentor now, though I don't know who that is."

"You don't know?"

"I was left out," she defended her case. "Em- Fashtar said that relatives are not good to keep around during training and therefore told me and Father in turn that we were not allowed to commune with her for the sake of an effective and efficient outcome."

Both humans looked at her and then shared a look. "And you agreed to that?"

Rad'na did not hide the shame from them. "Yes. Yes, I did. I don't know if you would understand it, but such are the githyanki ways. We cut ourselves off from family bonds that humans have."

To be more precise, which meant in turn going into detail, the Githyanki society was martial, first and foremost as it was practically the only lifestyle they had known to themselves from existence. For as long as any of them could remember, they lived and died by the sword and thus families had never been part of their life. When Lel, the first Emperor of the Imperium came to power, he proposed adoption as a way to start making a new life for the githyanki. Before that, biological parents recognizing their children was common but not encouraged to take them in for optimal effectiveness on the battlefield. The Children Protection Act was created with the intentions to have githyanki – if they wished it and could afford it – adopt a child to train and raise as their own. Whilst the martial culture was still in effect and probably would always be so, the CPA was a success when people realized that they had more freedom in teaching the future generations personal skills that normally took centuries to learn while the children could learn it quickly within a couple of decades. Not everybody in the Imperium adopted and the adoption was still a minority but it proved more efficient than the old ways.

Sadly, it displayed the same weakness that humans or other civilizations had: The care and love for a child/parent. Therapists could easily rack up money with the rate of people that came visiting them. And it could interfere with the common martial training during the teenage years. Instructors who had children were forced to take leave during the training in the fears that they would have developed a soft spot for their kid, if they had any recorded in their log.

Fortunately, only four in total had ever been recorded to have one.

"That's some heavy culture you share," Jashol commented. "I can't imagine living like that."

"Well, nothing is perfect. I merely obey the word of my superiors and I make due with what I can," she said. "I don't like it but I will do what I can to make up for lost time."

* * *

Cutting back to the drow city, Gromph had spent a considerable time in his office again, writing down and examining his recordings regarding things of an unusual phenomena that could occur at any time in Menzoberranzan.

Study notes, for short.

The archmage had several of them in his desk, ranging from small studies like how to improve a spell that already existed to phenomenon that shook the very city. Through his seven hundred years of life, Gromph had grown into potentially the most powerful arcanist in Menzoberranzan – barring the reclusive Spider Mage – and would not pass away for another two centuries.

Yet it was not enough. This was the curse of being a male amidst the drow. Females held the true power and whilst Gromph had grown to be respected enough to pick his own mistress, he had been shackled by them, including his own mother. Whilst he was free to study and advance his own powers, _somebody_ had to ensure that Menzoberranzan was supplied with heat every time it reached the surface equivalent of midnight.

He cursed Lolth for it, and he had pondered many times of how much power would he have obtained... had he been born a female.

Regardless, the object of his study this time was his new apprentice, Miyazaki. More intriguingly, her hidden book. He had only seen it once, but one glimpse was enough for him. Almost immediately, he had started making notes of speculation and went over the book in his mind over and over again.

The book was not something a mere apprentice of the Art would possess to begin with.

From what he had seen, it allowed her to read the mind of anybody she asked. Considering that the first person she had read in the city was the Spider Goddess herself, he was quick to establish that it penetrated mind barriers as if they were never there. Furthermore, only she could use it. Even if he had gained hold of it, how would he use it? How could he use it?

Then there was the issue of how she acquired it. Mages would scoff and say she got it cheaply by spreading her legs to some rich merchant. Gromph knew better. The book was too powerful to be in the hands of a merchant and it would not be in the form of a small card when inactive.

Gromph focused heavily on the card. From what he could tell of it, he saw the letters clearly and wrote them down on an empty piece of parchment.

_Mijazaci Nodoca, pudica bibliothecaria, Audacia, Occidens,_ he could see from the front of the card, also featuring a picture of herself with an array of books around her with the great book in front of her. The back was slightly more difficult to establish. _Minister ministrei, Negius Springfieldes._

The last part was obviously a name. Negius Springfieldes. Whilst the language was unknown to him, he did know that this Negius had a hand in her acquiring of the book.

Speculation so far was that masters and apprentices had a special bond between them. That or mages included warriors into their way of magic. In return for a small increase of power, the apprentice of the bond aids the master in what way they can whilst the master showers the enemy with spells. In combat, that would be where the warrior would step in as the guardian of the master, protecting him from enemies while he threw the spells.

But Miyazaki was obviously not a designated warrior. Whilst a demonstration of her martial skills (demanded by Quenthel not too long ago) was impressive for a human, she had also made open mistakes that any drow warrior could take an advantage of. The weaponmaster of Baenre didn't even bother with showing her how to get better. She was a wizard and ought to stay a wizard, not wield swords like a soldier. Gromph did agree with him, she could learn that after her tutelage was over.

Her book would give her an advantage, provided it stayed hidden from the rest of the city. Only three (or four) knew about its existence; himself, Quenthel, the kobold slave Gracknir and that scryer when she had read Lolth in the chapel.

But on to the book: was it common, or was it unique to Miyazaki alone? If the latter case then the bond between apprentice and master was different with each individual. This Negius must be very powerful if she had a book that could read the minds of deities. Such power could be in the hands of an archmage himself and Gromph was starting to see a clear picture of what skill Springfieldes had.

He needed more information on him before he would attempt to scry on this Negius. Maybe he should tell Miyazaki that he knew about the book. Then she'd be more cooperative in telling him about the bond.

It only took him about fifteen minutes to reach the library doors, but when he entered, he found that the apprentices were already reshelving the books that had fallen down in the accident. They were so caught up in their work that they barely recorded his entry. Miyazaki was at the center, cataloging the books and then handing them to the others telling them where to put the books cataloged. Her slave Gracknir was sweeping the floor with a rag and mop whilst her familiar (vicious little animal) was taking a nap by the table by which she sat.

Already, he was seeing impressive results. Books that were usually placed at random in the bookcases were now organized alphabetically in the Elven tongue and a sign was spotted leaning against one of the bookcases. It read; "Please put the books in an alphabetical order when you are finished."

Quietly as to not disturb the apprentices, he walked up to Miyazaki's side, getting noticed by her quickly. "I must ask. What were you doing originally back on your world, Miyazaki?"

She looked at him for a beat and then answered, "I was a librarian, Master. I was part of maintaining the largest library in my country."

Gromph kept quiet and observed everyone working hard to ensure that the library would be restored to a good shape. They were working fervently and followed what she told them to do. Maybe it was due to the instinct of obeying what females were telling them as they had grown up, but he was uncertain for now.

"No wonder you said this was sloppy," he told her. "The punishment still lingers until the whole library is finished but I think you ought to have some time for yourself in the library afterward. I'll notify the soldiers." with that he turned to walk out of the library and stopped short of the door. "Oh yes, I need to see you in private later on, Miyazaki. I have a small problem which might require the opinion of someone different. Ask for the location of my office once you are done here."

Then he left. Nodoka figured that it was like what Quenthel had said to her regarding slavery (minus the whipping) but the first part of what he said, she could translate easily. She now had free unlimited access to the house library for personal studies. She'd squeal in joy if she could. Resuming the cataloging of the books, it took only about five minutes before she noticed one book in particular. Taking a quick look through its pages, she closed the book eventually and called for Gracknir. "Gracknir, take this book and hide it. If the others see you, tell them you are moving it to its rightful destination. Then tell me where you put it."

"Yes, Mistress," The kobold said and took the heavy book away from the desk. Nodoka hoped that her little transaction with him wasn't noticed by anyone.

_**What happened to the current Antagonist?**_

With great power came great responsibility, was the common word regarding monarchs, in particular the High Monarchs. The official scouts, spies and diplomats were returning to Samasaliasal with reports regarding the situation. The human kingdoms were naturally going to join the Witch's faction, with just the one exception in the merchant city-state of Volksburg, pleading neutrality instead in the hopes of keeping its trade routes open. The Rakshasan nomads were still jumping the fence, so to speak, as they didn't know which side to choose. That was the problem with nomads as always. Opportunists.

The hobgoblin tribes were most likely going to sell their services to whomsoever was the highest bidder and he had the biggest coffers of money.

High King Ifrith was not pleased.

He should never have announced the girl as the Witch of Man. If only he had been a precog himself, then he'd find a way of preventing the coming civil war. But what was done was done and nothing could change that now.

To the west, High Queen Efromm was keeping quiet for the moment but the two had never gotten along well so she would use the civil war as a means to invade. After all, she and High King Rufus (blasted undead human) had declared war on him already. It would take time for either of them to mount a force large enough to attack the nations still loyal to him so he had to spend that time wisely.

Reports came from the east of a large fleet gathering on Zuriith's shores and an invasion force of about a million soldiers led by that Bharash, Rufus' main general. Even if they were ready to launch now, it would still take weeks (not accounting for the speed ships) before they got to Samasal shores.

Reports were coming of illithids running rampant in the lands as well and something else was on the move, already having destroyed Huttasa and was moving to the githyanki fortress city of Gor'ya-vel, which has always produced a healthy supply of soldiers for both fighting in Samasal and in the Astral Legions. He would have to send a force out to evacuate it and to hold off the enemy forces.

For letting the situation get out of proportion, he would have expected a visit from the Emperor. Or worse... the Archmage. Centuries he has had to endure the insufferable rants of the sorcerer and he had to grovel. Aside from the venerated Emperor, the Archmage was the only one who outranked the High Monarchs.

And he even had the gall to play favorites.

Another report came in, reporting the presence of the Witch in the kingdom of Kalamar. Ifrith has always had decent relations with House Kabori and through that, peace had existed so far. But if his little opponent was meeting with them, Kabori would surely turn the table on him. He could not allow it. But he could not just travel there unannounced.

He walked over to his work desk instead and decided to write a letter to King Belemerot.

_Belemerot the LVII, First of house Kabori and King of Kalamar,_

_I feel a dire urge to take the pen. As you probably know through the network of spies, our countries are at war. Not just from the outside, but from the inside as well. You have no doubt heard of the Witch of Man, who uses her vile feminine ways of seduction and temptation along with her magic to snare powerful men to her side. She has somehow managed to ensnare High Queen Efromm of Druustya and the legendary High King Rufus of Zuriith._

_My own scouts have just reported to me as I write this that she has entered your borders. I fear that she will most likely ensnare either of your sons._

_As such, I feel that I need to journey to Bet Kalamar within a few days and address this with you in person. This is not up for discussion, Belemerot. As High King, I must take action to secure the protection and security of our realm. And as King, I expect you to fulfill your duties as protector of my realm._

_Ifrith, High King of Samasal, Leader of the Samasal Clan_

"Fetch me a messenger hawk." As always, someone was nearby to carry out his command.

_**Twilight falls... and the enemy comes.**_

Akira and Chizuru felt squeamish over what was going to happen next for about an hour at the longest.

They had seen hobbos in the Blades before but never in such numbers. The Marauder tribe marched in a total number of 4000 (though they couldn't see that amount by eye) in perfect order. Each of them (that the girls could see) wore studded and boiled leather armor much thicker than the Kalamaran soldiers carried large round shields with two.5 meter long spears. In addition, they had axes as side weapons. Some of them even carried long axes, which had a large ax head attached to a staff their height.

Kalamaran archers prepared their bows and the officers shouted commands, Gareth amongst them. The Blades moved back from the front line, allowing the national soldiers take position first. "Within range, yet?" Rev'keth asked, standing next to Raydan armed with a bow.

"N-not yet," Chizuru answered nervously. She had the proper spell scroll in hand and the plan was well thought out by the captain.

The hobbos quickened their pace and arrows came over head to soften the defensive line. The four of them had to take cover from the barrage.

"Loose," a command came and the archers let their arrows fly. Most struck the hobbos, but few fell down.

"Now?" Rev asked the buxom girl.

"No," She replied.

"You just don't want to kill somebody, is that right?"

"It's our first big battle," Akira answered in Chizuru's stead, "It's a natural reaction to someone who is not accustomed to war."

Rev nodded whilst Raydan loosed one arrow after the other. "I know, I know, but what do we have?"

The hobbos started roaring their battle cries and charged the human lines. The soldier roared cries of defiance at the hobbos minutes before the lines clashed together. The defensive lines held against the first clash and they pushed against the hobbos as hard as they could. The first two lines, Shield carriers pressed as hard as they could, whilst the lines behind were using longer spears than the norm to stab the hobgoblin troops. Archers were taking their shots carefully, as they were starting to run low and arrows were expensive.

"I know that." Chizuru's tone held fear to it and she wasn't having that particular smile she had when she was glad. "How can you guys live like this? This is not a place for a human girl to be in."

"Tell me about it," Rev said. "But the reason here is simple. Both sides want to survive. Question is, do you want to survive more than the other side?"

That did it for her. Chizuru knew logic and using the very simple yet horribly racistic thinking that the hobbos were not human, she started to read aloud from the scroll, "Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes, Cum fulguratione flet tempestas austrina..."

Magical energy began to surge forward through the scroll, crackling with power. It caught the attention of several archers and officers standing on the ramparts of the wooden fortress. Then she rose up and spoke the name of the spell, "Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!"

The blast was devastating. Being some feet above the human lines, the powerful beam of wind and lightning surged forward and dug itself deep into hobgoblin rows, several of them caught full in the blast. Those singed by the edges of the spell blast as it dug itself down them were the more fortunate.

For a moment, everything stopped. Whether it was by awe of the power, or sudden fear and shock, Chizuru herself could barely stand up straight. She had to be held up by Akira.

Gareth Anchev seized the opportunity and roared at the Blades to rush forward to the lines and then the Kalamaran officers shouted commands to press forward. The hobbos snapped back to the battle and pressed forward themselves.

But the Marauders had kept their archers in reserve and then they came forward in range to loose their arrows and they had one specific target in mind. The four of them took cover behind the ramparts again. One arrow had nicked Raydan's shoulder just before he got to cover.

"Well, this is going brilliantly," he said. "What's next, taking off our clothes and charge at them screaming and kicking?"

"By all means, be my guest," Rev countered calmly to him. "But this is no time for jokes. We need to get rid of those archers."

"You got that right," an officer close to them said and crawled under the barrage of arrows over to them. "Spotter says their archers are roughly three hundred feet from our position. We need some form of long range artillery barrage to suppress them. Are you able to do it?"

"Cast a spell that far?" Chizuru asked breathing heavily. "I can. I need to see though the direction."

"The watch tower," he said as an arrow landed dangerously close to them. "You get up there and then you can rain fireballs on them as much as you like."

"Fireballs? I can't cast those," she replied to him whilst pulling out a scroll from her satchel bag. A moment of reading it later, she added, "I can however make a firestorm..."

"That'll do," Rev said. "I'll give her cover. Raydan, Ookouchi, find a way to cooperate and make sure that the enemy doesn't get inside. We must reach the top before they get through." A renewed roar down below revealed that the hobbos were pushing forward with their assault. "Move!"

He raised his shield that acted like an umbrella used for rain whilst Chizuru ran underneath it. Nearly a synchronized motion as they nearly sprinted together. And for once, the beautiful girl was glad that she wasn't wearing high heels which she usually did.

("Find a way to cooperate,") Raydan echoed. ("How is that supposed to sound-")

"What was that you said," Akira asked him. "I can't understand a thing you're saying."

Raydan looked at her in bewilderment and then realized what the gith meant by that. ("Not good.")

("Fall back!") The Kalamaran soldiers and the Blades took several steps back as the hobbos pressed with what they got left.

("Hey, where's the Witch!") That was Gareth shouting at their direction and he didn't sound happy to Akira. ("We need firepower now!")

("Hold on a bit longer,") The young hunter shouted back at him. ("She needs a higher vantage point to fire from!") Then he ducked down again and took forward his other weapons to decide what to use. His spear, an axe, a dagger and a kite shield. Taking the axe and shield, he handed the dagger to Akira, who looked at it first and then gestured to her sword on the back. He kindly retreated his gesture.

The hobbos broke through and were nearly on the gate. Akira motioned with her arm that he'd follow her and he did when she moved. He did not, however, expect her to jump over the ramparts to land and stand in front of the gate next to a few soldiers. ("What the-")

One hobbo saw her and his barking made several others engage the humans whilst he charged her. She was expecting this as she recalled a few lessons that Aristodemus-san had taught her in person.

"_When someone charges at you with a weapon, you can expect it to be raised high in the air." _The ax he held was indeed in position. _"A good idea is to stand as if you're frozen, it'll just bring them on and think you're actually scared. They'll expect that."_ The hobbo was right in front of her and then the critical moment was on her. _"What they do not expect is that you stand your ground, take their weapon arm by the elbow and then focus your Chi into your other hand to slam it into them. Most preferably, aim for the throat or failing that, the chest. The blow will promptly knock them out cold due to recoil."_

The counter sent the hobbo flying in the air and then crashing down on some other hobgoblins.

Raydan's jaw dropped over the side and soldiers nearby stared at her in disbelief. Not able to speak the same language, Akira could only stare back at them.

("Uh... Ah!") Raydan had an idea at the moment to convince them to fight with a relentless notion. ("She is friends and companion of the Witch of Man. The Lady Witch has used her magic to increase her combat skills. Fight as one with her and it'll probably rub off on you as well!") _I cannot believe I just told them that._

The humans cheered with joy and pressed on with everything they had and then pushed Ookouchi with them to fight on the front. Raydan jumped down as well and didn't land as well as she had done. She must have gone through serious combat training herself.

Akira reached the front-line first, punching a hobbo in the face and then throwing another that came too close to her, using Judo (Courtesy of Ukita-san back home). She had broken ranks and the others held their line, save for Raydan who had just reached her side and fought alongside her. He first used his shield to bash down a hobgoblin that went against him and used his axe as a hook to disarm another, right before he swung it right into the hobbo's head. He killed another that had ignored him to engage the human lines.

Then Akira rushed against him and went right past him, using the same counter she had first used against a hobbo that came up behind him. He returned the favor shortly thereafter by covering her with his shield from another, giving her time to deliver a knee strike to its face. It didn't take long before he lost his ax in the middle of the battle. He did savor something else, the katana he had practiced frequently with in Hina-sensei's absence. He drew it quickly from his back and used his shield mainly for defense whilst slicing hobbo throats and at their joints. There was one notable moment when one came in close to him with his ax raised high. Raydan got in close to him and before the hobbo could recalibrate his aim, the young weapon master had started cutting right below the shoulder and then completely cut the arm off. Akira never retracted her blade, preferring to use martial arts punches and kicks.

Meanwhile, over at the watch tower, Chizuru and Rev had just reached the top. "Alright, we're here. Let's see that firestorm of yours."

"Right," she said, holding the scroll up. "This is going to take a while."

"I hope it'll take less than 10 minutes," he calmly said.

Chizuru took the scroll in hand and chanted aloud as fire mana gathered in her palms. _"__Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ο τύραννε φλογός!" _Rev'keth felt the energy flow through the air as warm winds and small blisters of fire came to be and gathered in her outstretched palms. This felt more powerful than any other spell he has heard before._ "Ἐπιγενηθήτω, φλόξ καθάρσεως, ῥομφαία φλογίνη!" _Naba directed the palms toward the ranks of the hobgoblin army, secretly wishing there was another to resolve this but simple logic had her beat._ "Ῥευσάντων πῦρ καί θεῖον, ἇ ἐπέφλεγον Σόδομα, ἁμαρτωλούς, εἰς χοῦν θανάτου! Οὐρανία Φλόγωσις!"_

* * *

After the massive firestorm had subsided, the remaining hobbos fled back to where they lived, too scared to collect their dead. The smell of scorched earth was in the air and the human soldiers were collecting their dead and fetching their weapons as well as the hobbos'.

And Akira was throwing up. With the adrenaline fading and no excitement abound, the sweet but sickly scent of death was coming to her nostrils. Burnt flesh and the view wasn't helping either. Even though she didn't kill anyone, the other soldiers were just finishing off any Marauder that had fallen down and couldn't keep up with the rest.

In numbers, some 3400 hobgoblins had fallen with only circa 700 Kalamarans and 12 Blades dead. There was an even larger number of injured, the worst case of injury being the loss of a limb. About 600 of confirmed kills were delegated to the Witch.

Naba almost fainted when she heard that amount.

"You seem like you need a drink," said Gareth and gave her a jug of some alcohol. Instead, she took a jug of water given by Raydan.

"I don't think airag is going to help her much in this case," Raydan told the captain. "Besides, it's not meant for battle virgins."

Gareth had to agree with him there and then walked away.

"How'd it feel?" Rev'keth blurted out. "First time into an actual battle, that is."

Both girls looked at him for a moment and then at each other. Akira spoke first, "...It wasn't my first time in a battle but more like my first time fighting in one. I can't say I liked it but at the same time it was... exhilarating."

"How can you live like this?" Chizuru asked instead. "All this war and fighting and killing... how come you waste resources and lives like that? You should instead enlighten these people and aid them."

Rev'keth just wanted to shout 'The last time we did that, it resulted in genocide!' but he kept quiet about it and merely said, "You're a girl. You don't really belong on the battlefield so it's understandable you wouldn't know why we do this." Before any of them could retort at him for saying that, an elder officer of the Kalamaran came to them with a message in hand.

"This just arrived," he told them. "The King invites the Witch of Man over to our capital city of Bet Kalamar to celebrate her glorious arrival to our world and our country. The rest of you are welcome to follow her as well."

Raydan took a look at his heraldry and figured he was from house Saketi. The Saketis were known for being loyalists to the King, being the fourth most powerful house. "All of us?" he asked and then gestured to their gith knight. "Even him? The King must be feeling either very generous or stupid, if I must be honest."

"You are a mercenary, that means you're required to kill, not think," Saketi scowled at him.

"Don't tempt me," Raydan said quietly.

"_Easy,"_ Rev told him telepathically. "But my friend has a point, snarking notwithstanding. Kalamar has never been the most hospitable of countries to githyanki with exception to the High King."

"I merely give the message here, mercenary." Saketi handed the letter to Chizuru who took it quietly. "I don't presume too much, I merely do what my station demands me to do."

Before he left, Raydan blurted out, "Well, thank you anyway, Lord Saketi. We appreciate your cooperation," before he realized that he had made a mistake in saying the lord's name. Saketi took a look at him first, didn't say anything and then left. "Oops."

"Oops?" The other three repeated as a question.

* * *

"Send a message to King Belemerot and Prince Balan," Saketi ordered some other officer. "Tell them the Witch is coming. And she's bringing Heran with her."

"Heran?" The young man repeated.

"Now, Starscream," Saketi snarled. "Move." The young son of house Starscream moved as fast as he could to send the message. "It would seem big events are about to take place in Kalamar. I better make sure my house gets out of it unscathed."

_**Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul! Yo Ho hi Ho!**_

The ship cast anchor when they got to the island. The wizard may be mad, but he paid more than enough and they could keep any other loot they found there. All the wizard or whatever was left of his mind just wanted one thing from there. Captain Cain has always been a man for profit but being hired for an expedition was not on that list. Not while he was being infamous, even for a pirate. I did not become a pirate for this, he thought.

Still, that woman they had brought along was hot and that dark elf seemed like he could turn his companions over for a promise of greater benefit. The plan was simple. He had already talked it over to the drow and he seemed to agree just like that. Guess it was true what they said about them, they had hearts that were as black as coal.

"Woola-wacka, woola-wacka, I can sense it," The mad wizard chanted like crazy with his thumbs bound with strings in a fashion that he could not get it up himself. "Many wicky icky things gonna happen tonight!"

"Will you shut that crackpot down," the captain shouted at them as they lowered the boats down to step ashore. "He's been more than annoying enough on the voyage here!"

"Come on, master," that little flying black thingy hovered around that Fashtar's head and used its pretty lights to make the wizard follow it about. "There, there, that's a good wizard, follow the pretty lights." The little shit was good enough to make the madman step aboard one of the boats and his companionship, including the dark elf, followed him. It wasn't going to be easy to get rid of the big man, but the dwarf and the gnome were easy to get rid of and the woman could be kept as a plaything after this.

If only that wizard wouldn't have started singing all of a sudden in a jolly tone. Cain hoped that getting rid of him at the right moment was going to be so much worth it. "And those buccaneers drown their sins in rum ~ da devils themselves would have to call them scum ~!"

"Are you certain he knows where he's going," one of his crewmen asked the woman. "Man's a complete crackpot and sounds like an orc drunk on goat piss."

"Hey," an orc crewman protested.

"Well, he knew what he was doing once," she answered him. "but we had a run-in with stone giants and he got crushed underneath one of their corpses. Hasn't been himself ever since. If it weren't for the fact that he's manipulable by us who were with him then and, the huge paycheck I scored for myself for this, I'd have left him at some temple so they could try to heal him."

"Lust for treasure and a love of gold ~!" Fashtar swayed from side to side only to be supported by Thorgar for a moment.

"Maybe that would have been the smarter choice," she said. "But hey, I'm only in it for money."

Some hour later, they were a long way into the island, founding it deserted save for a small population of kobolds, easy to scare off. They worked together for once, hacking their way and forcing one of the little gits as their guide through to this fabled treasure room. For once, the legends of immense danger proved wrong and the pirates found this to be extremely promising for so little work.

Then again, they ran into a crossroad and their guide refused to talk. "Kill him and force another to show the way?" One of the crewmen suggested, making the kobold very scared.

"No, kobolds aren't as scared as one would think," Jarlaxle said. "Trust me, I know. But perhaps there is another way." He walked over to their crackpot. "Fashtar."

"Hello, mr Darkie," Fastar said.

"Yes, mr Darkie would like to know where you can sense it better." Jarlaxle dragged the wizard to each of the different directions. "So... did it feel any stronger at some point?"

"Go back to previous one," Fashtar said utterly out of it and Jarlaxle led him back to the previous. "Back to the other." Jarlaxle complied. "It was the previous one. I sensed it better there."

"You heard the crackpot," Cain ordered his men and pushed the kobold guide down the chosen path. "The sooner we reach this treasure, the better!"

"Wicked men get what wicked men deserve," the little kobold said whilst it was leading them on to their desired location.

"Hooo-oeey!" Fashtar cried out loud, "Every man aboard would have killed 'is mate ~ for a bag of pennies or a piece 'a eight~!"

"And someone shut that crackpot up!"

Another four hours later inland, they reached a large cave entrance. The guide wasn't willing to go in there but told them that was where the treasure was. The lost gold and loot from an ancient dragon that had died centuries ago was the kind of stuff that would make anybody a hero, given the proper tale and the _oomph_ behind it. The companions had come here for just one thing, the pirates would happily keep the gold to themselves and everybody would be happy save for the little kobold git that brought them here. Or so they thought.

"I can sense it." Fashtar had stopped his singing and had a minor conscience to himself again as he started to walk into the cave first. "It's here." He just walked in there, regardless of any traps that could be there.

"Let him," Cain said. "He can clear out the traps that are bound to be in there." Much surprisingly, there were no sounds of death or rubble or whooshing arrows or any of the like whilst they listened.

"Fascinating," Jarlaxle said. "It seems that the dragon was awfully sloppy with the defense of his treasure and consequently there are no traps at all."

"FOUND IT!" The githyanki cried out loud, the echo carrying his voice outward.

"Come on!" Cain rushed in first, then followed by the companions and his crew. The cavern was pretty straightforward, with few turns and ending in a large cave, filled to the walls and all the way up to the ceiling in some places, with treasure. Gold, silver, jewelry, magical items, all sorts of pretty baubles were here and the dragon's old bones could be seen lying atop one such pile. They were glad it was dead because the shin bone alone was bigger – in both height and broadness – than Thorgar.

The githyanki crackpot was enjoying himself with trying to make a treasure angel (as well as he could with his thumbs tied together) in another pile of gold and silver. Think snow angel and you get the idea. "This golden snow is a bit rougher than I thought."

"Golden-" Huelun muttered then ew-ed to herself a couple of times before pulling him out of there. "Fashtar, don't make snow angels in golden snow," she told him with anger. "People... people- pee in it to make golden snow!"

"Agh!" Fashtar started dusting himself off in terror. The pirate crew save Cain was laughing at his expense and as he was trying to get Huelun to dust his back. "Get it off! Get it off!"

"Get away from me!"

Okay, now Cain was laughing and was glad for once that the wizard was a crackpot. "Gentlemen, lady," Jarlaxle called out to them all. "I think I've found what is most likely the thing that our wizard came for before the accident. Someone do me a favor and uh, get me Fashtar over here. Mr Darkie has something to show him."

"Master, pretty lights," the flying black glowing pipsqueak said and the gith followed him. But when he saw something big and shiny, he stopped right there. Right in front of him, laid on a pedestal and surrounded by magical items and grimoires, was probably the largest flawless sapphire stone, easily the size of a human heart and glistening thanks to a gap in the cavern roof, allowing sunlight in. Jarlaxle was standing right beside it. "Master?" Fashtar ignored his familiar and walked right up to the stone. As well as he could with his hands, he lifted the sapphire carefully and brought it up to eye for a closer look.

"Is that it?" Huelun asked as she came up to stand beside him and the drow.

"According to his notes, yes," Jarlaxle said. "It says so right here; Wood of an Elder Tree, purest Iron of the Mountaintops, a flawless sapphire the size of a heart.."

"Yes, yes, very nice, very nice," Cain said and drew his sword. "It's a real shame that whatever he is building, it isn't going to be finished." On a signal, the crew ganged up on the companions, teaming up on Thorgar, taking the half-giant down in a swoop. They didn't pierce him with their swords or the like. Nailbrain got overwhelmed by two guys, one of them coming up behind and putting his weight right on the gnome's back. Gorim had it worse, being surrounded by eight of them and unable to reach his book.

Huelun reached for her shortsword, only to have a sword end by her throat. Jarlaxle was giving her a smile of apology, asking with his eye for her to put down her sword. "Jarlaxle, you utter bastard... you betray us after only a year with us? What about that drink you promised me?"

He grimaced and averted his gaze for a moment. "..I'm drow. That means I'm dishonest. And a dishonest person you can always trust to be dishonest." Fashtar stayed immobile, gazing into the sapphire whilst Captain Cain drew his sword and approached from behind. "But honestly, it is really the honest ones you have to watch out for," Cain placed himself right behind the mad wizard and fixed his sword onto him. "because you never can tell when the honest person is gonna do something incredibly..." Cain jammed his sword into Fashtar's back so that the githyanki fell forward. "...stupid."

"Stupid?" Cain questioned as he withdrew the blade from the gith. "I've never done something as smart as that during this whole trip. That crackpot was getting on my nerves all that time. So what was the stupid part in stabbing him?"

Jarlaxle replied by retracting his sword from Huelun's throat and pointed it at the captain's chest. "It's two-fold, honestly if you bothered to listen to what I had to say; first of all, I was being honest with her there in that it is the honest ones you have to watch out for. Think on that for a moment. Secondly... why do you think we were following Fashtar around for, really? Was it for money, was it for some hope that he'd get his mind back, was it for the fact that he'd get himself killed if we didn't hang out with him? No. And you didn't let him finish that song."

"What song?" Cain asked before he heard a clicking sound and turned to see Fashtar, serious looking and bearing a metal barrel reinforced by wood... and he suddenly realized that Fashtar had been playing them a fool all along.

"Shiver my timbers, shiver my sails..." the githyanki sang in a tone ending with "-olly" and aimed the barrel's end against the captain. "dead men tell no tales!"

_**Boom!**_

"What was that?" Yue asked as she and Fate were walking in one of the GPS' corridors and the two had just heard an explosion.

"Came from the cargo bay. Herr Stonegarden is probably experimenting with the various weapons the Dreadnought has," Fate said calmly. "I reckon it is going to be a common noise aboard ship."

"We're going to have to settle for some time period when he actually can do that so that there is no confusion between him testing the Dreadnought and us getting attacked." Yue began walking again, with Averruncus following her. "There is no sign or any word regarding Asuna-san so far. No one has seen her."

"What about the teams we sent out?"

"Konoka-san and Setsuna-san seems to have accepted small work for a human noble. Collecting scutage from an absent person from their wars," Yue reported. "Ookouchi-san and Naba-san haven't called in for some time but they seem to be okay."

Fate stroked his chin for a moment. "Have you tried scanning for any particular member of Miyazaki's new group? Have you found any of them?"

"I did, Fate-san," she replied back. "Of No- Miyazaki herself there is no sign, but scrying found at least Katsura and Ivanov traveling together. They seem to be with that hobgoblin who threw bombs at you before. We also found two of the human members of her group located in a village, training hard and with the villagers. The other two, the third human and the githyanki, we found no trace of. So far."

"Any word from Dynamis?" He asked her.

"Dynamis arrived two days ago in the magocratic city-state and has yet to report of any anomalies of activity within the city's main council. He is, however, reporting of anomalies outside the city-state. Reports of... "undead" are swarming their inbox and refugees are reported to flee where anywhere is believed safe. Most flee to the main capital or the magocracy," Yue told him in her usual tone.

"Any reaction to it so far?" Fate asked.

"The only thing he's been hearing from is that they "will investigate." For some bizarre reason, personally, that doesn't assure me very much," she said. Fate noticed a small change in her tone and guessed at its source.

"You're concerned about Miyazaki?" The question took her off-guard and almost tripped her over. "You are."

"Where did you get that idea?" Yue stopped and looked at him. "I didn't volunteer for this journey just because of my friend." A blank stare from him did put her under pressure for a considerable time until she admitted it. "Okay, fine. But that's not the only reason."

"Then what?"

"It's the experience of it," she said. "The excitement of visiting an actual alien planet. Of course, the technology on the surface calls for something else, but to see for real that we are not alone, that there are other civilizations out there."

"There has always been so," he argued. "We just didn't know of them until now."

"Yes, but this is something else. The githyanki have a society we're probably familiar with in-concept and manage to live in it. The fact that they can cohabit with humans already thanks to a constant presence to each other does explain why they were not afflicted with any disease or bacteria we have naturally."

"To some extent."

"Yes. I know it doesn't make any sense that we didn't get sick by any bacteria they had, but maybe we got lucky there. But regardless of we could get sick of that, it's just the sheer thrill of visiting another planet that has not only sentient intelligent life but also advanced civilizations."

Fate had to agree with her there. The githyanki practically were the first alien civilization they had encountered, albeit violently. Several scenarios could go through one's head should things have been differently and peaceful, rather than the rather nasty welcome they received when they first came to the civilized planets of the solar system. Then again...

"_Well, it's settled then." Fashtar took a few paces in their midst. "I'm going to conquer this sector," he said cheerfully._

As much as he didn't like going through with this, Averruncus did keep something secret from the Commander in Chief shortly after being made part of Special Tasks Department, Cosmo Entelecheia division alongside the Ala Alba division. It would be up to the Commander if he hid it out of either shame or something else when the news would come out. Not if, When. Fate wouldn't like the punishment for keeping things secret from the others, but he'd have to accept it for what he did.

A small noise, even barely inaudible, was caught by both. Their conversation stopped instantly and the construct resorted to hand gestures, with the possibility of their telepathy being either jammed or hacked. Yue took our her sword whilst Fate stepped quietly in the direction of the sound, just around the corner. How he took it was still beyond her normal method of thinking. Either way, they silently walked towards the bend of the corner, creeping up against the wall with her in the lead. Taking synchronized steps together, Fate and Yue eventually stopped just short of the corner and stood there in silence for some time. It was also odd that no one else had come to them or the like. At least Lt. Sevensheep – which was what her rank was, according to princess Theodora and how Fate addressed her – should come to talk to them regarding some trivial matter.

The odd thing to Yue at that time, was that instead of rushing past her and slamming whoever it was against the wall, Fate made an instant roundhouse kick right next to her side in the hallway, definitely hitting something. Correction, he hit someone because of the yelp of pain from it. It was someone who turned visible again after he stumbled against the opposite wall and sliding down.

It turned out to be a Githyanki in robes and ribbons.

"I recognize you," said Fate. "You were that messenger from Vlaakith-san, regarding this mission. Quite impressive of you to get into this ship without notice."

"We have our ways," the gith told him in a hissing tone.

"Well then," Fate said and lowered himself to the mage's eye level. "I propose that you leave whatever message you have for us from her unless you want me to correct this little intrusion." The gith looked at him for a short while. "It's not hard to figure out what you were doing here in the first place."

The mage was quiet for some time before telling them. "Her Majesty is getting impatient. Why haven't you dealt with this Witch of Man yet?"

Fate immediately answered, "She's proven elusive. Miyazaki discovered us early on after our first encounter and rather than engaging us, she hid. She knows better than to just engage someone of higher power."

"Then you should use that higher power to find her, rather than waste efforts on gathering allies," the gith snapped back at him. "It shouldn't be too hard to find a cowardly little girl, should it?"

"No, only this "Cowardly little girl," happens to be also under the combined protection – as I understand it to be – of the Imperial Archmage and two High Monarchs," Fate informed. "One of them very possibly on the same power as Her Majesty." He drew out another gith out of the shadows, this one a soldier by the looks of it. "If you want our help, I suggest that you let us do this mission **our **way, otherwise you're just an obstruction. And I for one, am not taking kindly to obstructions."

The mage took his soldier from crashing into him. "...Fine. Just remember to do your duty when the time comes. We'll be watching..." Black smoke arose from his robes engulfing both him and the soldier, leaving the force commander and his 2nd-in-command alone in the corridor when it faded away. Several more footsteps approached them and they saw Sevensheep along with Von Katz come around the corner.

"Commander," Sevensheep addressed him. "We got delayed by some barrier on our way to the quarters. Von Katz got concerned."

"As you were, Lieutenant." Fate didn't even bother to look at her. "Get in contact with the search teams as soon as you can. We need another update."

_**Back in Menzoberranzan**_

Directly from Gromph's own study notes of his latest session with Miyazaki,

"_Miyazaki isn't gullible but agreed to tell me the full story behind her card, on the basis that if she is to receive a proper training here, we need to know each other's secret on a need-to-know basis. Her world of magic incorporates an "Alliance" system called "Pactio." It creates a tactical bond between a mage and a chosen companion. She was however, reluctant on how one forms the pact, or rather how she did it. Regardless of what kind of companion it is, a card is alleged to exist as both proof of the pact and as a tool to be used. _

"_The master of the pact holds the original, whilst the companion or servant keeps a copy to him- or herself. Apparently, the cards allow telepathic communication easily between one another and the master can summon the servant to his or her place. A very useful trait to the pact. We should investigate as much as possible into this._

_But apparently, the artifact is not available to everybody. A select few seem to be able to obtain them. Granted as artifacts are very rare practically anywhere. Her possession of one is most likely credited to the power of Negius Springfieldes. I see two things in him so far: One that he is a very powerful wizard himself – though I need to find out just how powerful – and that he must see some potential in Miyazaki._

_I think more personal lessons must be in store in the training schedule if we are to achieve something from her. This means that she'll be more exposed to the world we live in, but as long as House Baenre profits, I believe it a small price to pay..."_

"You want me to make what?" One of the finest smiths in the city, Yerri'thal Baenre, a lesser ranked cousin to the main family of Baenre was quite astounded by the request from the person standing in front of him. He has made several swords and excellent armor for nearly every soldier of the house but nothing on this level before.

"It's a simple job on your part, honestly," she said to him, holding the request on paper in her hand. "It's not extravagant, you can choose whatever material you'd like for it, you'll be left alone for the most part and the pay ought to be more than sufficient for you." Nodoka had found something she could use from that book she had taken from the library of the palace three cycles past and using what free time she had left, she needed to see this one. A simple questioning of the guards – in a way they understood – turned her attention to Yerri'thal, said by practically everyone she talked to, "the most accomplished swordsmith in Menzoberranzan."

Yerri'thal didn't seem to enjoy it, though. "I don't see the need for you to have something like this. Don't you have "friends" who could fight for you instead?"

"And what if they fail?" She did make a good argument here. "I have relied on my comrades and friends for a good while and so far they have done an excellent job at that. But everything has a limit. There **will** be a time when my comrades fall themselves and that means I **will** be facing the enemy alone. I already have done so on occasion, so I speak with experience. Even with all my skills and spells, it wouldn't be enough."

She did give a good argument, he thought. And she had certainly thought this one through thoroughly. It was standard practice for drow nobles to attend Tier-Brieche, the academy. Yerri'thal had been there for ten years, training as a fighter before going into smithwork. There it was standard practice as well that each cycle would attend six months at the other two places of training, respectively. She wouldn't go through that, at least from what he had heard and it'd be pretty ridiculous to have a _human_ attend _drow_ training. Baenre would look humiliating to the other houses.

Still, this was way out of his normal expertise. You'd might as well ask a duergar or an orc to make a masterpiece... in painting art. "Let's say that I would accept this little request of yours. What's the time limit from now?"

"About six to five years from now," she answered.

"Plenty of time then, to figure out how it should be," he noted. "And you'll be visiting from time to time to determine the work for yourself?"

"No," was the simple answer. The more elaborate answer followed soon. "I'd be keeping watch in secret to see how it would be going. If I would visit, it'd be to make either a suggestion, or a change. I don't generally do that, anyway so you are most likely to have a free hand in this."

Most of his customers weren't that generous with their orders from him. Mind you, there were the occasional time when he could just shove them aside with the soldiers – a perk of being born in the first house – and he could extract any price he wanted from those who were not female. This one was, though, and even as a human, she was cared for as if she were the Matron's own firstborn daughter, minus the luxuries of the position. "...in secret. You'd not prefer to have the Archmage and the Matron Mother to find out about this?"

"I'd prefer that," she replied to him. "And for that matter, on the final note regarding this... name your price."

Now that he would not have seen. Setting the price to pay for was all dependent on social status. Powerful females could take something they liked for a petty sum – sometimes even for free – from a craftsman. The higher standing the house, the less gold or nothing at all would be the price. It was the same with the craftsman. If someone of a lower house or a non-drow was looking to buy something, the craftsman could determine the price – sometimes at a ridiculous sum. The price would be enough for the customer to pay fairly, but it'd leave them utter paupers for months. Even females would be forced to pay the craftsmen for something in that event.

And here she was, declaring of her own free will that **he** had full allowance to name the price. An uncommon, and generous move in Menzoberranzan. "Are you serious?" That was pretty much the only question he could ask about this. Some craftsmen didn't exactly always have gold on their minds when it comes to naming a price. Still, she was rather scrawny and flat-chested – albeit growing – but by Lolth did she have a wonderful ass.

"_Dude," V told the author in the seat._

"_You can't really deny it," was the answer. A lot of people who fancied the girl had to agree on that one._

"As long as it is in gold and jewelry, I can arrange for payment," she told him, having considered (and just averted) that possibility. She was a really smart one. "It may take a while, but I hold my promises and pay my debts."

"Even though the price is ridiculous," Yerri'thal said in turn to her. "But I suppose that once Queen, you could afford nearly anything." He considered the possibility of this and future prospects if he mastered this. Lucrative business with wizards could mean a lot of money for him and that was reason enough to care. "Fine. I'll do it. But if the Matron or the archmage finds out, either or, I'm not keeping my mouth shut. Unless you're paying a lot."

"Deal," she agreed so readily. "If they inquire, then you might as well tell them you're branching out or you're making me something. Just keep the real thing hidden."

She was awfully prepared. "Five chests of gold, each enough to ransom a human king. And another to keep my mouth shut," he told her immediately, making her startle back a step. "You can count yourself lucky I didn't ask for immediate payment."

Nodoka quickly reassured herself since displaying fear in this city was something one could easily take advantage of. "Done."

With the business of starting her "secret project" out of the way, the bookworm began making her way back to her bedroom. She was already half an hour past determined bedtime, with a good portion of that discussing things with the smith. Yerri'thal was certainly an expensive fellow but she could afford that. Most likely if she raided some dungeons for the money and saving it up. Or she could become High Queen of Samasal and then pay him. She really was lucky there with the timing.

Her familiar Heebie rushed up to her and curled himself against her leg when they met each other in the courtyard. One good thing (or bad) about familiars was that they didn't have to be by their master's side. A quick snuggle and then back to the front door. (doh!)

She got that far before a sudden jolt in her ankle made her fall down in pain... and made her dodge the crossbow bolt that was clearly aimed for her shoulder.

When she turned to the direction from where it came, she saw about six soldiers in mail armor and a mage in robes accompanied by an ogre with a large club standing across the courtyard. They didn't wear the Baenre symbol on their badges. The mage was the one with a small hand crossbow. "Pharaun Mizzrym will see you now," he said.

Nodoka bolted (no pun intended) for the door, only to find the damn thing locked from the inside. Either Baenre was doing this on purpose after night or these workers for "Mizzrym" had planned ahead of things. Heebie, though, stood and snarled viciously at them. One of the soldiers picked out his hand crossbow and loosed a bolt at the little furry beast. Before she could shout "NO!", the bolt just bounced right off Heebie's fur.

Before they could register what had just happened, Heebie charged at them in a speed slightly above what normal ratels could do. The other soldiers fired their bolts at him, but the little animal dodged them all with what could be best described as ridiculous agility. Then he crashed into the lower regions of the one who first shot him and began gnawing straight through the mail armor. "Aahh! Get it off! Get it off me!" The soldier cried with two of his companions trying to catch the beast, only to be scratched brutally by it. It didn't take long before blood began to flow.

"Forget that thing," the mage demanded of them. "Get her! She's the one we're after." Nodoka, being a smart girl, didn't bother with standing there and ran the other way from them. The bookworm went around the corner, leaning against it to catch her breath. "The Mistress will punish us if she gets away!" She could hear the mage shout at them whilst Heebie was dealing with the soldiers in his own way.

The mage, though, was the bigger issue. He could cast spells as well and he was more experienced than her. Going through her own selection of spells – primarily because she couldn't risk using her own magic for fear of exposure – she was looking for something that she could use to make sure he couldn't cast any spells himself. She didn't expect combat today and therefore her selection for today was mainly useless for a situation like this.

…

...or maybe not. Best make the best of it.

Nodoka took out a small hammer of silver and focused on the mage first, muttering the arcane words and making sure she did not misspeak as per instructed. The mage recognized the words and before anyone knew it before it was too late...

_**Crack!**_

...he got an anvil on top of his head and fell down. _Summon Guided Anvil, thank you, Fashtar-san,_ she thought before running off with a soldier right behind her. He did catch her, if only for a moment since she had another prepared. All she did was to touch his face and then it started itching all over him. He had to stop to scratch himself and therefore she got away back to the corner.

The third spell she had picked was gross, if only for a moment. Whilst the other soldiers and the ogre were busy handling Heebie (which was proving itself worthy of being called a Honey Badger) and the mage being occupied with seeing stars, Nodoka picked out a small jar with bitumen and a small spider that happened to be passing by. Taking a big sigh and gulping down, she picked out a single drop of the bitumen and muttered the words for the spell. Then she ate the spider alive.

Oh, how much she wanted to throw up at that time! That was most likely the grossest thing she had ever done and it nauseated her. The one thing that kept her from getting sick was the bigger thought on how much she needed to escape. Fortunately as well, there was a window roughly 50 yards above her and to the left, above the main door. So, she started climbing, much like how Spider-man does it. The _Spider Climb_ spell was proving itself very useful, if only one could skip eating the live spider to do so.

"Heebie, come on, let's go," she shouted to her familiar and he paid heed. He got off his second soldier and rushed to the main door. The ogre though, had another suggestion. The suggestion was that he'd take his big club and bring it right on top of the little shit. "Heebie, come on!" Again, the honey badger heeded and ran for it. Some of the standing soldiers reached for their hand crossbows again and launched their bolts against her. Nodoka dodged them as best she could without losing her grip, although there was a really close call after one right after the other.

Around that time, the ogre brought down his big club down on her familiar, the wooden weapon shattering into small splinters. Nodoka wanted to yell "no" at the scene, only she did not have time. Once the Baenre soldiers took care of them, she could mourn for Heebie. Climbing the wall was the easy part, but then she found that the window was thinner than her. It would take a while to squeeze through and not enough time.

Fortunately, the soldiers could not reach her themselves, with their mage out of consciousness and unable to cast spells. In theory she could take them all, but that would mean exposing her own magic to them and that would be a bad thing in long term. At least one of them had the sense to tell to not shoot her as she was needed alive, giving her enough time to squeeze in through the window.

Her head, first, was the hardest part of squeezing through. Anyone could have heard that exclamation of relief and pain when it popped in. Getting her arms through was easier, though. It went relatively well, right up til it was time for her butt, which... got stuck. _Okay, no more of those little sweets Gracknir sneaks in, _she thought as she groaned to get her butt through the hole. You'd think someone would have passed by and given a hand by now. Where is everyone at this hour?

Eventually and gradually, whilst the soldiers and their mage had probably found another way in whilst someone ought to have tried to get her from the window, Nodoka got the butt through and the legs followed soon. Just as she got up on her feet, she heard the rushing of footsteps up the stairs and she didn't have time to second-guess who it was, she just ran deeper into the palace. She rushed past a set of statues and took cover by one that resembled a gorgeous and nude, drow female, as if she was lifelike. Hearing the footsteps still, she took a heavy sigh. "When there's no path of escape," she told herself and picked out the thing that she'd need for a situation like this. "you stand and fight."

Taking aim, she saw one of the soldiers that followed her. "There she is!" That alerted the others to come to his side and Nodoka pulled the trigger on her pistol, hitting him square in the chest. He wasn't dead but he fell down. Another came through and she shot him as well, making more noise and hoping that soldiers would hear the commotion or at least one of the nobles. A third came and was smart enough to take cover behind a different statue just as she was about to shoot. That and she was a poor shot, herself. First time using a firearm and all.

She failed though to notice that fourth soldier from behind, grabbing her arm and twisting it, allowing the others to get to her as well. She managed to kick one on the kneecap, making him fall down in pain again but the other punched her right on the chest to suck out the air from her. "Get her outside, we don't want the whole house to be alerted," the one who was shot first said. He also picked up her pistol and examined it. "Nice."

She struggled with coming along and kept them effectively still in the statue hallway. Talking wouldn't work with these men and just where the hell were the others who lived here? Did they agree to this or something?

Then an arrow embedded itself in the throat of the soldier on her right from behind and he fell down dead, taking her with him.

The one thing she saw was a big black cloak that befell the two still standing ones brandishing small knives, one in each hand and whoever it was, she'd wish she could name her firstborn after him/her. The cloaked one blocked the second soldier's blade and sliced his throat in one fluid motion with ease, but the other standing kicked him/her aside and was gonna raise his blade to finish the job.

_In close quarters, it will automatically find any weak spot when you try to stab someone wearing armor._ That blacksmith's words rang true as Nodoka had taken out her knife and let it guide its own way. She didn't expect it to go directly into his throat and fall down dead as well.

She got a look at the black cloaked one as he rose up. Barely taller than herself, he didn't wear the badge of House Baenre. He was a blank. Over the one year she had been sheltered in the city, she had learned several house names whilst kept out of sight from them whenever someone came over for "business propositions", so she could recognize that he was a mercenary. Who had sent him was a different question, though. "You seem adequate with that knife," he commented her. That led to her remembering that she had just killed somebody.

And then she threw up, averting from him so it landed on the floor. "Ugh..."

He ignored the fact that she had thrown up. "You can count yourself lucky for having powerful allies at your side, at least,."

"Allies?" She asked. "I thought I was merely here for training and like some pet for the Matron."

He shook his head. "The Bregan Daerthe is protecting you, under orders of our leader, Kimmuriel Obludra." He examined the bodies of the soldiers afterward, picking up a badge. "House Mizzrym. That is surprising in that they knew of you to begin with."

"Mizzrym..." she said softly. "Um, their mage mentioned someone by that name. Pharaun Mizzrym."

"Impossible," he said immediately. "There's no way he could have ordered them to get you." He took a look at the bodies first and then back at her, saying words that would make anybody say the following if they were in Nodoka's position: _Oh shit._ "Pharaun Mizzrym has been dead for twenty years."

Before she could say anything, yet another hidden form slammed into him from above, knocking him unconscious and then grabbed her by the chest and slammed her into a statue pedestal. The last she saw before falling unconscious herself were the glowing gray eyes of the nude female statue, slowly shifting into a normal drow female.

* * *

"Is the situation under control?"

"Yes, Matron. We have captured the mage alive, but he refuses to speak about this mission of theirs and only two of his soldiers were alive when we captured them."

"Something killed their ogre?" She asked them when they got out on the courtyard. "Take the mage and his companions to the dungeons," she ordered them and the three survivors were dragged away. "What of the ogre? What killed it?"

The weapons master seemed reluctant to answer that one. "No blade marks or the like on it, and neither with the dead soldiers. Something clawed and bit the soldiers to death and the ogre bled to death." He swallowed at first before continuing, "We examined it and found that it's missing its... uh..."

"You're holding something back," Quenthel told him immediately. "Don't. When I hear a report, I expect it and you or anyone who gives it to be blatant about the contents."

The weapons master agreed to that mutely and stated the report blatantly, "We found that the ogre is missing its cock."

Quenthel was taken aback by a small margin when she heard that. "I didn't expect that word," she said softly. Before he could say his reasons why, they heard the cheerful chirping of a mammal and they saw that badger like animal that belonged to Miyazaki trotting toward them, with the aforementioned limb in mouth. Stopping a few feet away, he dropped it on the ground. "..What were that kind of animal called again?" She asked the weapons master.

"Uh, if I recall correctly, I believe they're called Honey Badgers, Matron."

"Look into them as much as you can," she instructed him. The little creature smelled something in the air despite there being no wind and then he rushed off with haste, snarling at the one who opened. He was so thrown back that he jumped aside allowing the beast to pass. "What now?" Quenthel followed the badger instead of staying to check up, having a fast pace to herself. She was interrupted when she saw the badger being thrown against the wall after going around a corner.

Immediately, she went for her mace and the whip and prepared to charge around the corner, only to halt when she saw the nude female towering above Miyazaki. She recognized those gray eyes. "...battle captive?" There had been only one she had addressed as such before, and that was during the War. The mentioned one flashed a smile and then ran the other way.

Quenthel didn't bother following her. That woman was more trouble than she was worth pursuing. Besides, she had other issues to attend to. "...This is getting out of hand if Danifae had to come back from being one with the goddess," she said to herself before picking up Miyazaki and walking off to leave her in her bedroom.

_**At some smithshop**_

The elven smiths worked fervently at their given task, polishing the wood, hammering the iron and preparing it with extreme care after being told what it was for. Outside the workshop, the six companions waited mostly in silence. Mostly.

Gorim had found a magic sacred axe his length in that dragon's cave and it had nearly changed his appearance altogether, covering him in black plate armor with glowing lines along the edges matching his blue eye color and his eyes were also glowing brightly thanks to it. Even though he was the designated healer and more likely to wield a book than an ax, the dwarf held onto it in case he was to meet some powerful opponent on his own, one day. Nailbrain had much sadly, lost a forearm against the pirates and it was being replaced with a new metallic arm that allowed normal movement much like his original.

Thorgar seemed alright though. The half-giant wasn't hurt too much though the loss of a finger was always a sad thing. Fortunately, it was within ability of being put back on. He didn't find anything to replace his warhammer, though.

So the only ones who got out of the tangle with the pirates on the islands relatively unscathed were the remaining three. Jarlaxle was juggling his knives randomly in the air whilst Huelun maintained her bow and sword. Fashtar browsed through the book he retrieved from the Library of Dunes until he reached the section of the Old Staff. Three items were cleared off the list. Within a year, even! If only the remaining two items to acquire for the staff were so easy get.

"So what do we have left," Huelun asked him. "after... getting the physical stuff."

Browsing a finger through the heavy text, Fashtar replied, "First of all we need divine essence. In accordance with the book, I need to go to Celestia for it. It's the best chance we have at retrieving it. Then we need and I quote, "the energy within a mage." Presumably, that should be easy to fix, given that I'm one. The final part requires something else. I don't know what just yet as I haven't translated it, but hopefully when it is done, that'll be it and the staff will be finished."

"Any chance you'd be willing to tell us what you intend to do with it?" Thorgar asked.

Fashtar got up from the benches that had been provided. "No," he said. "I can only say that I don't have the drive to take it for myself. I could do it easily, but I just lack the... sensation of it. It wouldn't be the same after having built it after all this time."

"Did that go away with your mind temporarily as well?" Gorim asked him.

"Maybe," Fashtar said. "but I didn't be a crackpot for a good four months of my year just to lose sight of my goals. I have a Plan, still and it's going to be put into action. We're just in the process of preparing for it."

"I hope this Plan will have been worth it," Huelun said, rubbing Nailbrain's new metallic forearm and looking at him with sorry eyes. "considering what it has cost us already. Money goes a long way, but we'd rather keep our lives intact until that thing is complete."

"I understand that," Fashtar told them. "The business with the pirates was unexpected and will not happen again under my watch." One of the elven smiths came out and asked for Fashtar to come into the workshop. "Excuse me."

When the wizard went inside, Huelun gained a different expression. Was he really a crackpot during that time? Best ask someone she knew would see through it. "Jarlaxle," she called and he stopped his juggling, catching all knifes with ease without looking. "I gotta know. Was the Boss really out of it after that time with the giant?"

It took about five seconds before he replied. "Of course," was the answer. Huelun could tell if someone was lying. This time, she wasn't sure if it was either truth or a lie she just heard with him.

Fashtar emerged two minutes later, with a complete staff made out of polished elderwood shod in iron on both ends. The only difference was that the top was fixed with the sapphire. "The Staff's physical form is done. Now comes the hard part. Of course, it will take time finding the first gateway into Celestia," he addressed them. "So until we can find it... how about we make some travels together for relaxation and treasure? I figure we earned some R&R."

They took it with delight and agreed to go to the nearest tavern for some drinks first. "Perhaps after that, we could go take a try in the truck," said Nailbrain and everybody stopped.

"Come again?" Fashtar asked. "The truck?"

"Yeah," the gnome told him. "Took a while but I managed to build it. That girl was quite descriptive on its design." He even produced a paper where a depiction (rather accurate) was drawn.

"How did-" the gith asked at first. "No, Where did you get the materials to build a combustion engine for it?"

"Scrap metal," was the answer.

Fashtar looked at him in a mixture of astonishment and shock. "You built a combustion engine out of **scrap metal**?"

"Yes."

"Where did you find the time? Where did you get the space for it?"

"I bought one of those trunks of Holding and asked Thorgar to carry it around," Nailbrain told him. Thorgar verified it. "I also sent a copy of the drawing to some smiths in town and asked if they could build it. I got to work on the engine, myself for it. When we got in, I had Thorgar deliver the trunk to them."

"With the engine completed inside," Fashtar finished for him. "What's the fuel?"

"Basically... booze and lamp oil."

Moments later, they were sitting about in the truck that Nailbrain had ordered and built. The downside was that it was mostly built out of wood with some iron frames. The wheels were basically iron reinforced wood with six spokes. And just, _where_ did he also get permission to have the street cleared for the test drive? "All of a sudden, I feel not so very good about this," Jarlaxle told his commander.

"How do you think I feel? I'm the only one who knows how to drive this thing." Indeed, he was the one by the steering wheel with the drow and the gnome sitting next to each other. "Okay, so how do I start it?" He asked Nailbrain.

"Oh, you just pull this lever here," the gnome answered and pulled a wooden lever on the dashboard. The engine roared to life with lots of smoke

"What gears are there?"

"Just forward."

"Just forward? No reverse?"

"No, just forward."

"Are there any brakes in case something nasty would occur?"

"What are brakes?"

Fashtar took a look at the little engineer. "...Right. I hope I can steer this thing, right?"

"Oh no, the wheel isn't attached. It's just something to hold onto," Nailbrain told him.

After three seconds of pondering, Fashtar retracted the lever on the dashboard to shut the engine down. "I think that we are gonna need some serious modification to this thing before we take it for a test drive," he told the gnome. "We need brakes, some proper gears so we can back out of a corner or a dead end, the steering wheel needs to be attached to the wheels – it is called a steering wheel for a reason – and we're going to need some safety equipment for the drivers and the passengers. Everyone, I've found our first thing to do."

_**Welcome to Bet Kalamar**_

"You know, I hadn't really planned for us to show up here whilst on the road," Rev said when they came through one of the water canal gates on a supersized gondola (or that's at least what the girls called it when they first saw it) into the most splendorous city built by human hands.

Bet Kalamar was a massive city of two million people in a country filled with 12. Some say it was the first human city to sport skyscrapers but a lot of people would claim that. Either way, the structures featured up to five levels of housing, each level per family. The people seemed to live prosperously here as everyone had neat clothing to themselves, with the men who weren't soldiers wore decorated shirts with embroideries and pants, while the women wore gowns of good quality. The soldiers wore the same as back at the fortress, only here they sported the emblem of the royal house Kabori, the red dragon against a purple background. Individuals of the house wore their own signatures and heraldry but the house itself bore that emblem.

People flocked to the canal to see the Witch in person. Many a girl were put to shame at the sight of her voluptuous body at such a young age and the men... well, you get the picture. They also spotted her companion, Akira and she was no slouch in the beauty department herself. The soldiers at least, could barely take their eyes of her. But the presence of the gith made the group of four receive mixed glances.

The gondola stopped by a road that had a staircase next to it. An escort awaited them there and guided them up the stairs until they took a left turn and arrived at a huge long boulder held up by a great round boulder underneath it. "That's United Rock," Raydan told them. "The founder of Kalamar, Fulakar Kabori, united the great houses of the land here in one big battle. Saketi, Fen'doval, Balemo, Remel, Vitisar and so on. They banded together with their separate armies and held back a great hobgoblin advance at this place. Fulakar was crowned king after that. You can see the castle a small distance away past it."

"Yes," said Rev. "I recall it was about... what, some 2000 years ago. A long while after the great dragons had gone extinct."

"Quite," Raydan said. "I can't say I'm glad of being part of Kalamaran nobility now, after experiencing a year outside of the social circle." He walked up and touched the boulder below. "And uh... I hope this doesn't affect our current relations as friends and all."

"Nah," the knight told him. "You had your rights to privacy, even though I pried a little at the start. I still listen to what your father told you regarding politics and holding onto it so it doesn't feel so bad."

"But you could have gone forth a bit by telling us the whole story," Chizuru told him. "It's not very nice to withhold important secrets."

"Okay, okay, I might have made a mistake there," Raydan defended himself. "But you don't know Kalamar's outlook to the rest of Samasal. Some see it as the most racist country of all and some see it as the most powerful human kingdom in Samasal. I grew up listening to the grandeur of this land was raised in accordance with the traditional rules. It was a bit of a heavy blow to me when I lost all that.

"But can we please move on? As I recall, king Belemerot is not a very patient man." the four walked on in silence before reaching the castle gates of the great stone fortress. A sorcerer contempt on consolidating his power over the lands shortly before the Great War had this place built with his power alone and people say he was the first Kabori. The thick walls and strong towers might have been proof enough of that's what he did and when the Great War fell upon them, the Magic Keep was never breached nor destroyed. But the sorcerers in the line died in battle and although the royal line derives from them, no notable individual has regained their old powers.

As they approached the main gate, both natives of their group felt nervous over the whole thing of meeting the king. The gith was a real nerve wreck in that he was being allowed inside the place. He was thinking over and over that if he made a mistake, his head would be a nice decoration on a spike. Or that his body would be a swinging target for the stones of little boys or arrows of practicing archers. Raydan on the other hand was more concerned on how he would be received. He had his own reasons for worrying about that and he wouldn't tell the others.

That changed though when they entered and they saw an elegantly dressed man come into the main hall to greet them. "Welcome. I am Balan, son of Belemerot and prince of Kalamar. We are honored to house the fabled Witch of Man in our halls."

To respond to him, Chizuru took a bow in front of him. "And I am honored to be welcome in them." He took her hand and kissed it lightly. "Your highness," she added after that.

"Come, you must be tired after your journey," he said to all of them and gestured for them to follow. "My father will expect you tonight, giving you time to dress properly and-" He stopped when he noticed the man in leather armor. And then Raydan made a mistake by looking him in the eye. It took about ten seconds before the words came out.

"Welcome home, Raydan."

* * *

**A/N: **_I think I might have made Heebie too hardcore. Then again, he's an augmented Honey Badger so how could I have made him too hardcore? Anyhow, see you next chapter!_

_Additional: On the lookout for artist. Requirements: Must be decent in making faces and body structure. Capable of drawing deductions alone. Willing to make a large number of characters for this fic. Have an account on deviantart. Have a good imagination regarding clothes, weapons and armor. That is all. PM me if you feel like you're up it for.  
_


	49. Please don't kill me

**A/N: **_Und now that dis chapter is complete, I shall go into hiding. Please do not try to find me, it is a waste of resources. All I am saying is that when you give me a character to work with, you therefore submit to me having full permission to modify aspects of them when I deem it necessary. And the character in question was rather void of a full background._

_Quote: "The eyes were open, the mouth moved, but Mr Brain had gone on vacation."_

* * *

They looked at Raydan in confusion with the exception of their greeting host. The weapons master had expressions that varied on how to respond to what the prince had said to him.

"You two... know each other?" Chizuru asked softly, not bothering with addressing either of them.

"Uh... sorry, you must have confused me with someone else, your highness," Raydan said rather quickly but Balan's reply was fast as well.

"Raydan Heran, secondborn into house Heran, often called the Hunter family by people for their tendencies to hunt various rare and dangerous animals throughout history. Used to be first among the Kalamaran noble families. Last master of the house, Pryon Heran, married a foreign princess and brought her to Kalamar, resulting in their sons dark brown of hair and yellow eyes instead of the traditional red of hair and blue eyes, as well as foreign names. Manhood trial was to hunt and kill an ankheg. Raydan disappeared last year after reported having finished his trial on his 19th birthday. House Heran descended from Diorik Heran who slew a great dragon and ate its heart, resulting in an unique family power for them."

Now they looked at him with wider eyes. "Uh... you seem very astute about him, ser..."

"Raydan, I could tell it was you by your hair-style, your voice tone and if you want to play incognito," Balan said sternly and pulled off Raydan's scarf from his neck. "you do not wear something like your family heraldry as blatant as where everyone can see it."

"So you do know each other?" Chizuru asked them whilst Raydan took his scarf back.

"We're childhood friends. I'm his oldest friend in the world," the prince answered her. The weapons master didn't seem pleased, though.

"I suppose you're a tad upset about me missing," Raydan said softly.

"A tad? Raydan, you didn't even bother to contact us," Balan chided the man. "Not a letter, not a sign, nothing for seven months. Just no trace of your body and two survivors from the attack saying you vanished into the forests."

"Wait," Rev said all of a sudden. "Attack? What are you talking about?" He later added, "Ser."

"Ah," Raydan said loudly first. "You do recall I mentioned I lost my old life, right?"

"Raydan's home was attacked by a lesser family, house Ragarela," Balan explained to them. "It happened on his birthday and Pryon and the rest of the house were killed. They couldn't find Raydan's body but claimed that he was buried under collapsed rubble. But Ragarela was sloppy. A couple of servants under Pryon's direct service survived and made it to Bet Kalamar."

Raydan looked at him in bewilderment now. "I didn't hear anything about that."

"Arguably, since you didn't bother apparently to stay in the country and arrive here like anyone sensible would have done." Balan certainly didn't sound happy in his tone. "Anyhow, there you have it, house Heran was declared missing and Ragarela guilty of treason."

"Ah." Raydan had a good understanding of how treason was punished in Kalamar. It was the same as how you treated enemies in open battles. So inviting them for some ale and bread was out of the question. "Every one of them?"

"No, not all. Ragarela's oldest daughter was spared in that it seemed she had no idea of what was going on." Raydan's eyes widened at that one. "She was taken in by house Starscream after the whole incident."

"...house what?" Akira asked purely out of the blue.

"Starscream," the prince answered her. "Is there a problem?"

"No no, no," she replied immediately. "Just surprised a bit at the name, that's all."

"I see," he said, even though he figured there was more to the tale, he wouldn't push it. "But in any case, Raydan fled rather than come to us and tell us firsthand. With being a noble you have rights but with rights comes responsibilities, Raydan and you have responsibilities towards the honor of your family and the realm. You may not do as you please just because your father was the Royal Official when he died."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that, uh... the guards would taken me for yet another raving young man pretending to be a noble which they always deal with," Raydan countered at him. "I wonder really how you run this country with the way your father is."

"You running away was not a smart thing. Do you think you honored your brother by fleeing and not taking revenge according to law?" Balan shot him down there. "And what about your father? Your mother? All those people at your home? Do you think you honored them by running away like a beaten lamb?" The series of questions made Raydan quiet and he had a very melancholy or depressing look on his face. Feeling dirty but victorious about it, his friend the prince carried on, "Guard, escort the Lady Witch to her special arranged quarters with her lady-in-waiting and bring them garments of the finest quality. Should they have any special requests, bring the seamstress. And make sure that the new Lord Heran here is reacquainted with the keep."

"Raydan?" A distinct female voice called out and the group noticed a very beautiful woman in a wonderful sea-inspired slim blue dress with contrasting and silk-like red hair and the blue eyes and per mentioned by Prince Balan. "Is that you?"

"Oh, it is you, Fanam Ragarela," he said with a hidden tone of sarcasm. "Or is it Fanam Starscream now? I always thought that would suit you better."

"Oh, it is you, Raydan. I'm ashamed of what my father did and my prayers are with your family," she told him softly. Of course, as far as Raydan could remember since they grew up mostly together was that Fanam had a teasing side to herself and given the age of consent around these parts... well, you get a general idea with the body she had.

"I sincerely hope that you had nothing to do with your father's idea of moving up in the world, Fanam." Raydan did admit that he admired her beauty on more than one occasion but they never did do it because she always found him as this friend you could always sexually tease yet always not giving him something for all the teasing. There was of course, a very good reason for it. "Though I wonder how it comes that you were spared when your brothers weren't."

"Aww, don't tell me you didn't enjoy it at the time back then," Fanam cooed, leaning onto him. "But I have my wits and my beauty to rely on, Raydan. And I do think of you as a friend, despite our history."

"Fanam, he needs to rest," Balan warned her. She decided to let go and walk with the guard to escort Chizuru and Akira to their quarters. Before they left completely though, she decided to give him one final tease.

"Ah yes, Raydan, I almost forgot." That was most certainly a lie with the way her eyes flickered. "Since you have returned to us, it might be a good idea to go see Asa." The way Raydan flustered all of a sudden brought her a grin which she hid neatly despite in plain sight. "She has been so worried about you since you disappeared." And with that, the girls left, leaving Raydan and Rev'keth alone in the entrance hall. Balan had followed the ladies shortly since the way to his father laid the same way for a short distance.

"Asa is here?" Raydan asked himself. "Ohhh dear, am I in trouble..."

"Asa?" Rev looked at him in near amusement. "I hate to sound intrigued but there seems to be a story behind that. Who is she, some lady-in-waiting you were courting?"

Raydan was very quiet on the subject for about a minute. "...not exactly," he said at first. "Asa is a half-sister of Balan on the king's side and she's also... my wife." For the first time ever, he actually saw his githyanki friend genuinely surprised. "Yeah, I know."

"...we so need to get out of this place." The two of them could agree on that notion.

"_Where did K go?" A minor author asked._

_Nyrath replied, "He's gone into hiding because of what he did to Vast's character. It's a safety procedure."_

"_So he meddled a little with a character, so what?" Another asked._

"_You do know this is V we're talking about," Nyrath replied to him._

_Then V came in through the door. "So sorry. Dozed off. What I missed?"_

"_**I warned you."**_

"Boy, is he gonna be mad," Deadpool said.

"What's he talking about now?" Saber asked whilst they were sneaking through dead vegetation in a single line, with Saber being second in line with Asuna in first and the merc with the mouth behind them.

"Just ignore it," the redhead told him. "As far as I could tell of him, he's always annoying."

"On purpose," DP said.

If Protoss had mouths, Shakuras would have sighed by now.

It's been more than a half a day of traversing the wasteland and they had been lucky in fending off small attacks from 'Nids since they left the cave. But with each attack, the numbers had grown and they were getting to the brink of paranoia with the rate they came at. Aerie had barely been able to recuperate and recover her spells and had been forced to rely on wands and a dart that always hit home and returned to her hand after hitting the intended target. She had received it from a good friend who turned out to be an even better wizard than she'd ever hope to become. As she was the physically weakest, everybody had formed a defense around her from the threats. Deadpool had positioned himself closest, though it was confirmed that he did so just to "cop a feel." Minsc, being the ever so valiant knight, disapproved of this action and made sure the guy kept his hands to himself. He did so mostly.

Which is why Minsc was behind Aerie instead of Deadpool. So that he wouldn't ogle the woman's bottom.

Still, they had made good progress, even if only half a day. Believe me (the author), when it comes to surviving a wasteland filled with monsters, just three hours alone is more than enough for you to be considered good.

Thing was, though, that Asuna, Saber and Shakuras had encountered a Demon shortly before meeting up with the others and that was a big concern. The Hive Mind was terrible enough but to face manifested demons was something far worse. The Tyranids could not tear your soul apart once they were finished with your sack of flesh and bone. The sight of just one demon was more than proof needed that they were here.

They eventually reached a small ridge and Saber went up first to have a look. Upon a small glimpse for an instance she backed down immediately after it. "Wha-" Asuna said at first but the gith shushed her and quietly motioned for the whole group to climb up and have a look for themselves.

In the distance they could see a tall structure most likely the ruins of a massive castle. From Aerie's predictions and divinations they had been traveling in the right direction for most of the day, being lucky in their traversing. The downside was that in front of the great castle were a painfully large number of demons from all the six-hundred and sixty-six layers of the infernal Abyss, all guarding the entrance with their numbers and several of them were huge in comparison to what they've seen before.

"This author person seems to favor the odds against us with numbers of powerful opponents, does he not?" Minsc says at a middle tone, which was not his normal tone of speaking.

"But that's what he's supposed to do," The merc told them. "Throw lots of powerful opponents at us so we beat them and gain enough experience to go face the final boss. It's almost like a video game. Except you can't romance any of the party members."

"DP, shut it," Asuna snapped. Then she slid down again with the others following her shortly so they wouldn't be seen. "Okay, what do we know about this kind of demon? I've seen a kind different than these."

Aerie gave her a five minute long explanation that demons were from the Abyss and they had no regard for anything save themselves and their Masters. It was so brutal a race that even the Devils waged war on them. Minsc then related a story about how he and his sword Larry had defeated a powerful Balor demon. The trick was to aim for the throat and they would go down like anything else.

"Still, that's an awful lot of them," Saber commented, having another look. When she came back down, she seemed like she had an idea. "Not all of us could wade through that and live. So I suggest a very radical suggestion to this."

"Send Deadpool out there to distract them?" Asuna really could not hide her joy at the thought.

"So I can harvest all that XP for myself?" Deadpool seemed rather thrilled at the thought.

"**Both **of you," Saber said instead with empathy on 'both' when she addressed them. "will go out there to fight them. From what little I have seen of Wilson, he regenerates rapidly and he is a good fighter with his swords. And whilst Asuna cannot regenerate, she wears a magic necklace that prevents her from dying in battle and she can be healed afterward. And your artifact can banish summoned creatures with ease. So you two will go out there and cause enough damage for them to either flee or if possible, coerce them into calling for their master to come to their aid."

Both of them stared at her for a few seconds before you-know-who acted up again, "So... we could call it a date?"

"Don't call it that," Asuna warned him.

"I see you both agree to this," Saber said. "In the meantime, the rest of us will go into hiding or at least see if we can flank the demons. You could manage them on your own for now."

"Wait, you're just gonna leave like that?" Asuna asked of her. "Split the party? That usually goes bad."

"Yeah," Deadpool agreed, for once. "Whilst I can certainly not object to whom I get left behind with, the party splitting up is never a good idea and always, Always results in that somebody gets killed."

"Given that you two are the only ones that could possibly survive an onslaught like that, I'm not taking this up for discussion."

"Squeak," Boo (ahem) squeaked in and jumped from Minsc's shoulder and crawled up to Asuna's shoulder, even stroking her cheek lightly.

"Seems the hamster wants to be with them," Shakuras noted. "Then perhaps Asuna should have some... intelligent conversation."

"Oh good..." Deadpool said at first and turned upwards but then stopped himself. "Hey!"

And there were only Asuna and Boo to see him.

"How do they do that?" The merc asked out loudly.

"Beats me," said the redhead. "One moment they were there, the next... poof."

"Well this is just great. We are alone with a rodent, about to take on a massive horde of demons by ourselves for the XP gain for ourselves and they won't provide back-up!"

Asuna looked at him for a brief moment. "...Aren't you the one supposed to be exhilarated about that prospect?"

"I know," he replied. "I just said that to be out of character."

"Rorshach would be a better match for me than you," Asuna stated deadpan.

"That guy? He's a psychopathic, unforgiving, paranoid maniac," DP told her. "Why on Earth would you pick him when you got me?"

"Simple," she retaliated. "Between the two of you, Rorshach would make the good cop."

Deadpool stared at her for a brief moment before saying quickly, "Payback time," and then rushing up to the top of the ridge and screaming at the top of his lungs, "HEY EVERYBODY! SHE THINKS RORSHACH IS A BETTER MATCH FOR HER THAN ME! WHAT DO YOU THINK?"

"Idiot!" Asuna was immediately at his side, giving him a smack on the head. "What do you think you're-" Then she noticed that the entire demon host was staring at them, some with bloodthirst in their eyes. "...Fuck."

"Naughty word," he said.

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

"Squeak!"

_**POV: Nodoka**_

"_Nodoka-san," Negi cried out in his adult form. "I've come to save you!"_

"_Negi-sensei !" Nodoka wears a gorgeous short skirt dress of silk and decorated with pearls and diamonds as she embraces him. "Finally we're together again!"_

"_Yes and I have defeated everyone who stood between us," he said as there is a big pile of villains she has met in her trek; Fashtar, Cireka, Drinde, that black and blue Demongo fellow who was a total screw-up and so on. "Now there is nothing that stands between us and our love."_

"_Eh?" The bookworm's cheeks flushed and she felt a lot more warm than usually. "Sensei, you..."_

"_I didn't realize it until you were missing in our daily lives," he responds to her. "But during the absence, I discovered that I am in love with you, Nodoka-san."_

_She flushes greatly at this declaration and she finds it hard to breath. "Ah.. Sensei..."_

_He doesn't say anything as he moves in instead for a kiss. Then he says out of the blue, "The Mistress has requested your presence for the da-"_

"Eh!" Nodoka snaps out of her fantasy to find one of the soldiers by the door and he had been struck silent by what he saw. It took a while considering her position to say something. "C-could you repeat w-what you just said?"

The soldier steeled himself and then answered, "The Matron Mother has requested your presence for the day." And then he left.

Nodoka wanted to die out of embarrassment at being seen. She always warded herself from scrying whenever she felt the need upon her. Not that it would bother her master or anything but if someone was not to be disturbed, it'd be best to respect such wishes. She found out the hard way once that he had once spotted her without her noticing it and then told her about it. And this time she had forgotten to lock the door! She really wished someone else could have taken her instead, even if they had to force someone to. _God, this place is getting worse every day I am here and now I'm requested after on my one day off for the year. ...I hope it is just talk._

Nodoka left the room later on wearing the drow assigned attire, a metal bra that clasped at the back of her neck (surprisingly comfortable) and a skirt that went down to just below her knees and small leather boots with low heels and lace. Why she had been forced once to don this was beyond her until they had told her.

Regardless of whether or not less clothing means higher confidence in personal power and beauty, she took her cloak from back home as well on top of it. She would feel like a prostitute otherwise.

Some fifteen minutes later of walking the corridors of the palace and making way for Sos'Umpto Baenre (whom she had knocked out in her first year in the city and got away-ish with) who was clearly in a bad mood and unable to take it out on her, the bookworm reached the main hall with the throne. She found a guard and asked where to find the matron with a quick explanation. She got pointed to the chapel. Having the Spider-Queen watching her made the girl feel squeamish.

...

Oddly, she found the matron sitting on a chair next to a table she had obviously brought in and a spare chair. Quenthel had also brought in two goblets and a bottle of a drink which smelled curiously sweet of honey and liquorice which she used to pour into her own goblet. Nodoka seemed to take the hint almost instantly and without being told to, sat down on the other chair. "You requested my presence, Mistress," she said having learned the proper terms now after a year of staying down there.

"Who is he?" Quenthel asked almost immediately while pouring the human a goblet of the drink. Upon receiving no answer she detailed, "You have been bleeding for a few days every month since you came to Menzoberranzan and from what I hear, you have been locked up in your quarters when not required to show up. As a female it is easy to figure out what."

"A-and what is it you have figured out, Mistress?" Nodoka felt stiff (no pun intended) at asking that. She was hoping the drow woman hadn't thought of getting her a male for the night.

"You have somebody in mind to save up your tension for." Quenthel did shoot herself down with the question she had asked the girl. "I know humans well enough that sex and such is not as common as down here and with... people of your status, they tend to save theirs up for when they have a husband, I reckon you have somebody in mind for your first time. I'm merely wondering who the "lucky" male is."

Nodoka would have said 'Is this a question or an order for me to tell you?' but she knew better than to upset Quenthel. Good Kami-sama, the matron was not as bad as her mother (shiver of shivers) from what she had heard of her. But should she tell the full story about him or not? If she did tell her then what parts should she leave out? Best neglect telling her his age to make it more believable about it. But in turn, shed be forced to tell about her friends who also love him and then she'd hear something she would not like talking about regarding her friends and classmates.

"Well?" Quenthel's tone sounded more demanding now.

Nodoka sighed and started telling, "Negi. Negi Springfield." She took a sip of her goblet before continuing. It really did taste of honey and liquorice. "In terms of magic on my homeworld, he would be considered my master. He too happens to be royalty."

"Is he now?" Quenthel did sound intrigued by this. Certainly a ploy to get to know something secret. "Well, even for a person of your status, or is the proper term 'princess'... you seem obsessed with this, Negi Springfield. Must be what they call love." Nodoka hid her blush from the matron but seemed confused by the statement in what Quenthel said there. She must have been an open book to her because the drow explained things further, "To us, love is soft and useless. It doesn't win battles and those who apply it have ended up badly. To simply rely on it is meaningless."

The way she said it might have been a provocation to the girl. Nodoka wasn't really willing to get into an argument with her but it was a clear invitation and she could not refuse the matron. "...I don't think so," she retaliated softly at first. "Love takes several shapes and depending on how you use it, you could rally others to your side to fight alongside you if you ever need help."

"Is that how you see it?" Being with the drow for almost more than a year now, Nodoka had started to understand how they spoke. It was nearly always a double meaning to something they said unless it was something plain and simply blunt.

"Yes, I see it that way," she replied to the matron and taking another sip. "Negi has protected me throughout our time together and even made a vow to not let anyone lay a finger on me with ill intent. I'd do anything for him in return for that."

"So it was your love for him that drove you into killing that male a few days past," Quenthel said, shooting down Nodoka's pride, whatever was left of it. "No wait, I was wrong there. That wasn't love, it was either hate, anger of them pursuing you or just a desperate call for survival. Either or, you cannot rely on love all the time. That is how life is lived to its fullest. You need to only trust yourself to be successful."

Nodoka felt more and more awful living down here. Exposure to the full of Menzoberranzan was likely inevitable and whilst she was doing her best to avoid that, it was not easy. Virtually every trick in the book was used to stay out of contact with the brutal world of the drow city. "I don't really think that way. We humans are successful because we stick together as a whole. Whilst we do make war on each other, we avoid it altogether in means to finding a solution that works out for the best of everybody."

"Really. So I suppose that in recorded history of the world, humans have only entered war and claiming the vast majority of it in the name of peace," Quenthel countered the bookworm's argument with what she knew of the humans on this particular world. "But you know, humans are quite unbiased. Some are fighting for good, others for evil. And do not think that evil is a creation of behavior by the various races. People can be _born _of evil here. And they take pride in it."

Nodoka felt almost mortified by what the matron said but quickly understood why Quenthel had summoned her. "Is this a lecture of some sort for me?"

Quenthel looked at her for a moment. "...let's call it that." She took a sip of her goblet before continuing, "On the subject of you having taken a life for the first time, let's assume you never want to do so again. Only, you cannot. It is always the first one that is the most difficult and once you get past that one, it all becomes so much easier.

"You get a taste for having killed someone. Killing a beast is much easier but another person is more difficult because they are like you; intelligent, able to speak, in your own belief "having a right to live."" She took a sigh and she was starting to reek of alcohol now whilst Nodoka reluctantly took another sip to appear interested. "But in the end, it's either you or him who's going to live and when you choose who gets to live, both sides immediately pick their own side. It is as simple as taking a step. Once you start..."

Nodoka just had to finish that sentence, "...you just cannot stop doing it."

"Yes," the matron said. Nodoka looked at her and found that whilst she was in a sense (well, in terms of body and mind) an ideal woman. She may not be as busty as Chizuru-san or as intelligent as Hakase, but Quenthel possessed the wisdom probably only Evangeline could match. But her heart was even more black than Dynamis-san probably ever was. She saw everything beneath her, save the race of drow and the only reasons she was not the established Queen of Menzoberranzan were the fickle nature of drow who could never accept someone above them and Lolth who seemed to frown on anyone becoming too powerful. Granted, she was both matron of the first house and mistress of the academy for the aspiring leaders of the city after a war that ended only twenty years ago which was practically only recently to elves. So her existence was necessary for the time being. "Exactly as you said it. You just can't stop something once you gain a taste for it."

Nodoka felt like she'd want to stop drinking now and put her goblet on the table again.

"And as for you with your... private moments, you're a female. It comes naturally. Normally, I could just send you some handsome young human for the nights but my orders were strict in keeping you safe until you'd be married," the matron said. "You can always change that if you will but Springfield comes first, I suppose."

"Y-yes," Nodoka said. "But why are you so interested in this? It's so obvious I'm surprised you didn't just tell me what it is you really wanted to know."

Quenthel didn't seem like she paid that any heed but appearances and expressions were always deceptive. "Power," was the first answer. "Power, intrigue, skill, abilities. You come from a world which is all new to us and with it, comes magic. Such power is unique here on Toril and you alone possess it. What I want... is access to such power.

"I can wait. I can outlive you, if you so chose to stay down here forever. Of course, since you do not intend to stay here forever, I might as well speed things up." She now put her goblet on the table. "It might take a while, but I will gain it, one way or the other."

Nodoka had enough and rose from her seat. "Will that be all, Mistress?" Her tone gave off suggestion of both annoyance and anticipation for an answer.

"Not quite," was the reply and Quenthel rose up as well. "Follow me."

...

The two of them walked swiftly through the halls of the compound, with the older woman at the lead and her not far behind. A passing by the second wizard of the house, Nauzhror the podgy drow who had a beard and a squad of soldiers in their service doing a sweep of the compound alongside seven other squads for any entrances intruders could, they descended into the palace dungeons, built in deep of the stalactites for housing, well their prisoners.

Nodoka wondered why they were going here but did not ask. She feared that she would be locked in here for the rest of her days down there but at the same time, it felt like she was going to be introduced to someone already down here. Could not have been the warden, they just passed the big orc.

The two of them entered a cell and the first thing Nodoka heard was, "Back for more?" the voice was female and nearly exhausted, almost parched of water. When she stepped in she saw a bloodied and chained up beauty. She had brown hair from what she could see and her clothing was torn to pieces to where it could only cover her nether regions... barely.

"Not this time," Quenthel replied to her. "This time someone's here to end it for you." Nodoka froze at hearing that and the prisoner looked up to see her in the eyes. Her green eyes reflected in Honya's violet. "The squad that captured this one had just arrived in the city when you came under attack." She realized that Quenthel was talking to her. "Since she got here, she has been quiet and told no one about what she knows. It's come to my conclusion that she knows nothing."

"Wouldn't you normally... you know, let them go if you conclude they have no knowledge?"

"Heh," the captive chuckled at that. "You obviously don't know how things work in a city like this."

"After what she has been through, letting her go would probably make it only worse," Quenthel explained to her. "And you were brought here for a different purpose than watching." Without waiting for an answer, she headed for the door. "You two talk it over. I want it done as fast as possible."

When the door closed, it dawned on her on what she was to do with the prisoner. She hadn't read much of such stories back home but it was usually customary prior to contemporary times to just execute a prisoner rather than let them go back to their home. This woman was certainly an enemy and enemies of the drow were always said to be dealt with... in the most horrible ways.

"Talk it over," she heard the prisoner say softly. "I wonder what the bitch meant by that?"

"It's no question," Nodoka answered her and sat down a small distance from the prisoner and pondered on how to put it so she would understand. When she had it, she said, "I am relatively new to taking a life. I have only killed one person and that was only a few days ago. All my life, I was raised to be kindhearted and be good to everyone, not killing someone for whatever reason there is. I can't-" She stopped to find the words. "I-i can't kill someone just like that and yet... I did. And I feel awful about it."

The prisoner was quiet for some time before reshuffling herself so she could sit properly. "Growing up without ever having to kill... sounds almost like heaven," she said at first. "But sadly, that is not how these times work. Nearly everybody at some point in their lives here in Faerun have been forced to kill someone or some beast."

Nodoka listened to that and then asked the question, "How can one justify such living? I was always taught that killing was an evil never to be done."

The prisoner had to stifle a laughter to not make it sound naive. "Killing is an evil? Perhaps. But it sounds stupid. Me, I have been forced to kill ever since I was a little girl. Oh, I didn't catch the name."

The young girl looked at her first. "Nodoka. My name is Nodoka."

The prisoner nodded at first. "Well, Nodoka. To elaborate, times are harsh and death is common everywhere. I'm certain your home where you originally lived in frowned upon death in your land but I have no doubt either that death was common in your little world. Death is always a part of life.

"It is simply how one treats it, with either acceptance, tolerance or loathness, that death can be seen. If killing truly was evil, then there'd be nothing left of good. The act of taking a life isn't an evil, nor is it good. It's like the hammer of a builder, the net of a fisherman, even the little quill a wizard uses to write down their spells. It's a tool and one who does not use the proper tool for a job is a bad craftsman at their work."

Nodoka took it in and pondered over it. She had never really thought about the act that way before. It made a lot more sense considering the times, yet she could barely think herself doing it over and over again. To her, death was something one should achieve through old age, not at the tip of a sword, spear or by a bullet.

_"If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you can not do that, then perhaps the men does not deserve to die. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is."_

The phrase came almost out of nowhere in her head but she recognized the phrase. It had been a while since she read that book series. Maybe she still had it in her possessions. It was a lot more controversial than her usual set of books to read but it was a good read, nonetheless. And for once, it helped her realize something.

"So," she said at first to the prisoner who seemed to understand what was about to come. "if people must be killed for some goals to be achieved, then you could state that it was a means to an end... right?"

The prisoner didn't smile but she seemed content at that. "You could say that. The decision to kill might be either the loss of one's innocence, or the loss of one's life. You may not like it yourself, but one day... you just think back on what would have happened if you had not made those decisions and then... you either get glad or sad at it. Either way, you end up losing something and you might be better off for it."

To be frank, Nodoka had never heard wisdom words like that before and it was starting to make absolute sense. It had dawned on her previously what she was to do with the prisoner and the bookworm's mind was in the middle of reaching a consensus. Best bring in an outside opinion.

"You... you do know why I was brought in here, right?"

"Yes," was the blunt answer she received. "I doubt that bitch left you in here for a simple chat. Though I suppose you have heard arguments on both sides, I guess." Nodoka nodded at that and rose up from her seat. "Whatever you decide to do, I'm actually glad we had this conversation."

Moments later, the door opened and the bookworm stepped out of there. She hid her eyes behind her bangs as Quenthel looked at her. "Don't ask me to do something like that again," she told the matron as she passed by back to her room.

Quenthel merely grunted in late response.

_**How are the court visitors doing?**_

If it weren't in a court in a medieval-ish country on an alien planet, Akira would feel like a highly expensive prostitute with the get-up she was given by the servants. A white choli top with teal frills by the shoulders where one would have sleeves and covered in small jewels, along with a long white skirt with an aquamarine short overskirt above that, held up with a golden flower. It was certainly a very appealing dress, but it was okay to show off the belly button yet not the legs? Speaking of showing skin, they could have been a bit more considerate when it came to her cleavage.

Chizuru on the other hand, was given something much more modest in the shape of a white gown with garnets on a belt and snowdrops as the pattern and a red overcoat. And then came the jewelry. Both girls had been given armbands of gold and small amethysts. Akira had received a small necklace with a round sapphire and Chizuru had gotten small silver circlet with a small "moonstone" in the center. They said the moonstone represented magic in its own sense.

They hadn't heard from the other two yet, but word had reached them that "the new lord of Dovah-Praan has returned" and the one they came to think of was Raydan.

Akira could always question him once they got to the dining table with the king. God knew what would become of Rev'keth-san.

"What do you think the king will be like when we see him?" Chizuru asked her.

"I don't know," she replied back while being surrounded by maidservants in plain and short dresses attending them with the proper jewelry to wear for a formal dinner with the king. "He'll be old for sure. I think Asuna-san would like him, though."

"If he looks like Takahata-sensei, that is," the more busty girl said and they sniggered together.

Another servant, this one a page boy came in through the door, and said something in the native language – the girls had yet to learn if they ever could – with motions. The maidservants at least understood and motioned for the two to come along.

They noted the elaborate history laid out on the walls of the castle; paintings and statues of great former monarchs of old, a handful of them female who were the only ones born of their generation. The paintings showed them the more regal side of the kings who had ruled Kalamar. There were even texts at each of the paintings and the statues. Shame they couldn't read it.

They did however, reach an area with a telepathic surveillance as they could understand the servant announce them, "The Lady Witch of Man and her lady-in-waiting!" Nearly the whole table turned to them; two lines of the sons and daughters of powerful noblemen from various houses throughout the land. There were two empty seats, one next to prince Balan, one next to Raydan who, in also a new attire, didn't seem comfortable, sitting to a beautiful young lady roundabout the same age as him. Rev'keth-san was standing by the empty seat next to Balan. He wore his fine clothing with a mantle and his sword in its sheath hanging in the waistband.

A lot of boys flushed and cheered when they saw the girls. Akira didn't like their stares.

"Ah, our venerable guest has arrived," a strong female voice said. The speaker was a tall gingerhaired woman with strong bearings to herself in a white chiton with blue and purple patterns. She wore a golden circlet with a diamond on her head with matching jewelry. "It is quite rude to keep the host waiting, no matter of status."

"Now, now, my dear queen," An old male said and it was easy to see him. King Belemerot was old and fragile but he seemed much like a king nonetheless in his great fur-edged coat made out of old dragon scales. "this girl is of important class and high quality. She can afford being a small amount of tardy. Now, come closer young lady, so I can have a look at you. I can't see very well."

Chizuru went closer to his seat, past the line of boys who leered at her (best word to describe it, really) and up next to the king. Akira went the other line and she could tell that Raydan was staring down anyone who was leering at her. "Ooh," the king said when he finally got to see the lovely lady. "the gossips were true after all. You are as beautiful as my son described you." Chizuru felt very relieved until she heard him mutter, "Wouldn't mind having her on my bedsheets every now and then."

She had to be escorted by Rev'keth to her seat next to Balan due to shock.

Belemerot had never been part of the great monarchs and he was not the wisest in his prime, suggesting an assertion of strength instead of diplomacy. For the past twelve years, though, he has gone senile and tended to say what was on his mind than what he actually intended to say. This was starting to become a problem for the royal family.

"So... it's come to my knowledge that Pryce's son, Raydan, has come home as well," the king said.

Raydan seemed reluctant to answer him. "Aye, sire. I have come home after a self-imposed exile."

Belemerot smiled. "Your father was a bloody idiot who clung to old ways," were the words in his thoughts. What he actually intended to say was, "Your father was an extraordinary man, Raydan. Taking his place as the new lord of Dovah-Praan won't be easy." Then came his mind again. "We should have it instead of some upstart brat. Nothing big about being descended from a dragon-slayer."

Akira really wanted to say something about it, but tried hard to pay it no mind.

"Hmm, I must say though, it is good to have a Heran back in the kingdom," the queen said. "It's been certainly droll having to preside over the ancestral home of the great Hunter family. The whole place is infested with beasts like you would not believe it."

"Mother," Balan said to counter her. "Dovah-Praan is a key piece of land to Kalamar. Our soldiers from the region are better trained than other counties and marauders do not dare come there for fear of the beasts. It is also the only place in all of Kalamar where one can find the bones of the extinct dragons. Are you saying that we shouldn't consider it part of our country?"

"Of course not, my son. I merely pointed out that it takes a monster to take care of monsters," the queen said and Raydan flinched. "But that is not the subject here, is it?"

Before anyone else could continue, a messenger came in from a hallway and whispered something in the king's ear. "He's here? Already?"

"Who?" Chizuru asked out of the blue and regretted it immediately.

"What does that old shit want, now?" The king said and into the room stepped a Githyanki man in fine regalia and escorted by a female one in plate armor. Wait, what? A gith, in Kalamar?

"Touching that you feel that way, King Belemerot of Kalamar," Ifrith said.

"Oh. Shit," Rev'keth whispered. He reached out with telepathy to Chizuru, Akira and Raydan, _"Guys, that is Ifrith the High King."_

_What! What's he doing here? _Raydan asked.

_We should wait,_ Chizuru cautioned. _Wait for his move, whatever it will be._

"Ifrith!" the king cried in joy. "So good to see you again. How has it been, seven years?"

"Ten," said the High King. "I shall be taking my regular seat, if you do not mind. It's been a long trip for me and I am famished."

"I trust you know that we have the Witch of Man with us, tonight?" Belemerot said and the gith king flinched back and took a direct look at Chizuru. He didn't seem pleased to her, but his eyes lightened up and he nodded to her first.

"It is not something I should say, but it is good to finally meet you, Witch of Man," he said.

"_He's assuming that you are Miyazaki. Pretend to the court you are her,"_ Rev'keth told her whilst slowly reaching for his own sword. Ifrith's own knight seemed to do the same.

"Pleased to see you as well, High King." The response couldn't have been more flawless. The two knights relaxed and took their hands away from their weapons.

Ifrith took his seat opposite the king of Kalamar and immediately, food was being served to him as well.

"Now then, we are here to issue a few things, are we not?" Balan spoke up whilst the rest of the table tucked in.

"Oh, yes, thank you for pointing that out, you worthless scum of a son I have," Belemerot said and the prince held his face at being insulted. "First, we are to reinstate young Raydan Heran as the new lord of Dovah-Praan, along with his wife..." Raydan really didn't appreciate being reminded of that, as his wife was sitting right next to her. Pretty thing, Akira thought from what she could tell of her sitting just two seats away from her. "...and we are also in discussion of the marriage between my son Balan, and the Witch."

It was considered very bad manners to perform the often-so-performed spit-take at a table. Doubly so, at the royal table of any court. It would reduce one's own social standing at the court and you'd be branded a jester there for a long time.

And yet Chizuru, Akira, Raydan, Rev'keth – who wasn't even drinking – _and_ High King Ifrith did it all at once together.

"What!" Ifrith demanded.

"What's the meaning of this?" Akira asked as well.

"Well, you see-" the king said but he was interrupted by his son.

"What my father meant to say is that it is not a good idea to stand alone during a civil war. A woman standing on her own is bad enough, let alone one who is at war with our venerable High King."

"And you speak of marriage in my presence because of that?" Ifrith asked. "Be glad the laws of hospitality apply, still."

"Hence why I speak of this now," Balan explained patiently. "This war could take years, even with magic being involved. Therefore, to have support behind yourself is a fully logical conclusion. And the better solution to ensure a strong alliance than marriage?"

"Is that why you had her summoned to the court, Balan?" Raydan spoke up. "Just so you could marry a girl you never met? Gee, I thought you'd be a lot smarter than that."

"Oh, I am, old friend. You know politics as well. A political marriage is a solid way to gain alliances and frankly, isn't that how you got into the family as well?"

"That doesn't matter right now," Ifrith hissed at the human noblemen. "What you are saying is outright treason. I came here to ensure the loyalty of Kabori and Kalamar for the coming battles. Now you stand here and say that-"

"I cannot be married to you," Chizuru cut him off.

Rev'keth thought, _WHAAAAAT?_

Raydan looked at her in confusion. So did Akira and his wife, Asa.

Balan looked shocked.

Belemerot looked indifferent.

Ifrith looked almost relieved to hear that after registering the words.

His knight merely thought, _Meh_.

The rest of the table went silent.

"What?" No one knew who said that first, since everyone else save for Chizuru and Ifrith's knight, said that.

"I said, I cannot be married to you," the buxom girl repeated. "I am a person who believes that one should marry for love, not for convenience, even if those were good points. I also believe that one shouldn't just speak of betraying one's leader right in front of them."

"If I may point out, young girl," the queen suddenly spoke up. "Ifrith over there is your enemy. You are in need of strong allies."

"So will you when I send my armies to collect your heads," Ifrith spat at them.

"Besides, which," Chizuru continued unafraid whilst Rev'keth looked as if he was in panic, and showed them a plain ring. "I am already engaged to someone else."

There was a deep silence on hearing that. Then her knight cleared his throat.

"Ahem, yes, it is real. I was there, myself. Friendly fellow, no trouble in getting his hands dirty at times, a true gentleman to the ladies and one you could truly rely on to either save you or kill you, given the situation," said Rev. Chizuru wouldn't know about the last part but he was quite accurate in describing Spanners.

"Really?" Raydan asked. "Must have happened before I joined up with you guys. Say, is it possible I could get invited to the wedding, just so I could smear the proof in my childhood friend's face afterward?"

"So long as you remain faithful to your wife, brother-in-law," Balan said through clenched teeth. Then he sighed. "Very well. This changes a lot. You have a fair point yourself and we are not allowed to interfere."

"Well then, we should send for him to come here so we can kill him," the king said. "Balan, send a message to this man. We should congratulate him on being engaged to our Lady Witch."

If Balan looked bleak, he didn't show it. "Understood, Father. I shall send for him personally. Lady," he addressed Akira. "perhaps you'd be willing to assist me, as I don't know where he is at the moment?"

Akira looked concerned a bit, but seeing Rev'keth going a swift nod that only went noticed by Ifrith's knight, she agreed.

"I believe I should send him a message as well," said Ifrith. "My own support depends upon it."

…

The minute they were certain of being out of earshot, Balan gave a cry of frustration while squatting down.

Akira decided to be blunt to the prince. "Your father is not very bright, is he?"

"If he had half the sense of knowing that even half of he actually said made absolutely no sense, Father would have abdicated years ago. Sadly, he has not." Balan didn't even bother to hide it.

"Then he won't be remembered when he is dead," said Ifrith, walking past them. "Let's go."

…

"Well, I've written down the letter now," Balan said, holding an envelope of some sort. "Just tell the couriers where to take it and things should go from there."

Akira took the envelope and got handed another by the High King. "Wha?"

The githyanki king didn't look pleased. "Just formalities," he told her before turning to Balan. "As for you, you'd better get your priorities straight where your allegiances lie. Are you loyal to me and Samasal, or just to yourself?"

"I am loyal to Samasal, of course, your Majesty," the prince answered him.

"Then you'd be certain of doing what I say, not following a pretty face with big teats."

Akira didn't know how to cool down two political heads when they were at each other's throats. Or was it only Ifrith at Balan's throat? In addition, there was a civil war going on? Just what had Miyazaki gotten herself into?

"_High King Ifrith has run this country for a long time,"_ a telepathic voice snapped in. The one Akira could point a finger at (not literally) was the knight. _"For centuries, it has always been the Githyanki who has had the privilege of being the ruler of all the Great Nations. Samasal, this Great Nation, is no exception. With a human being a threat to that due to some prophecy -"_

"!" Akira nearly jumped at the word.

"_and with proof that she has magic, we are not going to let tradition and laws be thrown out the window. It would be outright treason to suggest that a human should sit on the throne. Ifrith is the rightful king, no one else. And I will ensure that at any cost."_

The knight knew. Ifrith knew. The two of them knew that Chizuru was only playing a hoax on them. Somewhere down the line, Ifrith had met Miyazaki and he had known from the minute he stepped in that they were fake. The girls were just so fortunate that he hadn't let the cat out of the bag.

Or were they? Akira could remember tales – several of them, in fact – in which the crime for impersonation was punished with death. Little to no doubt that the githyanki was playing so that king Belemerot would find out himself and then the blow would be worse.

Hang on, prophecy? Miyazaki was involved in a prophecy? Must be a pretty good one to get a whole Great Nation riled up.

"_Your secret's safe with us... for now."_

Akira had best tell the others whilst thinking as a pretense about how to, uh... seduce that young lord of Dovah-Praan to secure a good position for herself. "Well if you excuse me, I should go seek my lady's approval for these letters. Then I shall retire for the night."

"Of course," Balan responded and she retreated back to the dining hall.

Very much afraid.

…

Belemerot had retired for the night with his wife and left the table. Something about jerking off to the chest of the Witch. Good grief, that old man was starting to grate on everybody's nerves. Anyhow, the rest of the table was free to discuss things as they pleased and not surprisingly at all, most of the boys were keen on talking with Chizuru.

The other two in their team, the men, took the opportunity to talk between themselves.

"So, we're fine?"

"Yes, Raydan, we're fine. You could have been a bit more open about it, but there you have it. We all got our secrets." Rev'keth had taken his distance from the table, unable to stand the sheer arrogance and childishness of the young nobles. If any of them were offensive against Chizuru, he would step in, but otherwise he just couldn't stand near them and hear their whispers of how they would try to have him killed without any signs of them being involved.

Pft. They were nowhere near some races he knew of.

"Okay," said Raydan, who had managed for a brief time to get away from Asa. "Well, since I shared with you something embarrassing about my past, I think it's fair that you tell me something embarrassing, as well."

"I once got married myself to a member of a different species in return for an engine part my team needed to repair our craft. They were gonna smuggle me out after the wedding and we got the engine part."

"How did that go?"

**Flashback:**

"_CHANGE OF PLAN! LEG IIIIIIIIIT!"_

**End of Flashback.**

"Went off without a hitch," was what Rev'keth told him. Then he noticed someone being rude to Chizuru and tried some moves. "'Scuse me."

For a brief moment, Raydan was alone to himself. And now we get to see his beautiful wife.

"Raydan?"

Asa was a young lady of eighteen years, having strong brown hair instead of red. She was only half-sister to prince Balan because she was a bastard child of the king and taken in at age seven by Balan. Her marriage to Raydan had mostly been a political one to consolidate the houses of Kabori and Heran, but the girl was genuinely into him.

And frankly, she was not too bad to look upon either. Her mother must have been a real beauty to have caught the king's eye. "Raydan, why are you talking to a Githyanki? Were you never told the stories of their cruelty when you were young?"

Raydan sighed. "Asa, I was told those stories. But believe it or not... that one saved my life not too long ago. And if the Witch trusts him with her life, then I ought to do the same... at least until I repay the kindness."

"I do not know, husband," said his wife, looking at the gith calmly warning the nobleman to keep his hands to himself. "whatever he gains from this war, one can't tell by eye alone."

"Perhaps," he said. "But I don't think he's gaining something out of the war and is merely being a kind soul..."

Then the young nobleman who had made a move on Chizuru was hurled up into the air and managed to grab hold of the chandelier above the table to prevent injury. "How's that for "bring it on," huh?" They heard Rev'keth say.

"...as long as you're kind to him in return."

"You're getting bored talking like that?"

"Yes." Raydan didn't even bother hiding it. "I'm just being polite since we're in the capital." Then all of a sudden he felt being hugged.

"We did miss you, husband. Balan was distressed in the weeks after the attack by Ragarela. So much he visited my room every now and then," said Asa.

[beat]

"Wait... he's done what?" Raydan asked. As much as he liked Balan, this was his wife.

"No, he hasn't done that." He let out a sigh of relief at hearing that. "But not seeing you for most of the year has put both him and me on edge. You should have come-"

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have left you, Asa." Before he could say anything else, he heard and saw Akira coming into the hall with envelopes and looking next-to-fully panicked.

"I'd like to ask you, lord Heran," she started whilst catching her breath. "is there a particular phrase around here when you've run into trouble?"

"Jabberwock's in town?"

Akira averted her eyes for a moment. "..Yeah, that's pretty much it."

_A bit later, aboard the GPS mk II._

"You told them WHAT?"

"_It was your suggestion, Spanners," _was Akira's response to that.

"_Was it?" _The young human next to her said in surprise.

Feeling a few eyes on himself, the engineer sighed. "Y-yeah, but I wasn't expecting a full royal proposal from an actual prince."

"Wait, you told her to say that?" Haruna asked him. "Wow, you really must be into her."

"_I thought that was just something she came up with,"_ came the voice of the githyanki taking part of all this.

"I am not. Into girls. Younger than me. Capische?" He retaliated. "But here's the thing. I need to answer this. I gotta get down there and do the whole shebang anyway." With that, he turned away and left the others by the comm screen.

They heard his cry of anguish a bit later.

"_On the whole, I think he took it rather well,"_ said the gith.

"So... shall we come pick you up?" Haruna asked them.

"_No,"_ Chizuru responded. _"If you were to come here, I think the king would assume the "Gorgon" has come and rally the whole city against you. Even if we could hold them all at bay, I don't think the High King would be satisfied at that alone."_

"_I'll have to agree with her there,"_ said the gith. _"Considering that the High King saw through our guise and your untimely arrival would cause panic among the populace... our best bet is to stay here and rely on that the plan works so far with the local population."_

"I like that idea so far," Fate spoke up from a corner. "Naba and Ookouchi can stay in a fixed position under protection. It is convenient once you think about it."

"_...I really was hoping for you to not working alongside him, ladies," _said the young man.

"_Oh, come on, when was the last time you heard names like Naba, Ookouchi and Miyazaki, huh?" _The gith pointed out for him. _"They had been working with him all along and our interests were only the same at the time."_

Fate paid little attention to the arguing of the two and turned to Chizuru. "Naba-san, do you think you can use what little magic you actually have to charm the members of the court long enough for us to come down there?"

"_Possibly,"_ was the answer. _"I could also use my artifact if it comes to it. We probably just need to show our faces to the crowd every now and then when you come around, we'll be left alone."_

"_If I may, that is probably just a maybe-ish situation. We'd be probably also forced to display the magic by the nobles who wish to see proof. I know that about half of those people out there are descended from sorcerers and other spellcasters. Such blood would only allow blood that has magic as well,"_ the githyanki said.

Averruncus considered this opinion for a minute and then he agreed. "You have a very keen intelligence, githyanki."

"_My one good thing apart from my looks that I inherited from my spawn-father."_

"Speaking of looks," Fate interrupted immediately. "there is something vaguely familiar about you. We probably have met at some point."

"_Perhaps."_ The comm screen shut down after that.

…

It was then that Rev'keth panicked. "We. Are. So. Fucked."

"Whoa!" Raydan had to stop him there. "There are ladies present, remember?"

"If you had even the slightest idea of what Averruncus can do, you'd say that as well," was what the knight replied. "I thought things were bad enough with Ifrith here, but having to contact the prime enemy!"

"...politics," was what Raydan said in return.

The two girls looked at the two men and pretty much saw them as having too much trouble in their own lives. Pretty much the opposite side of the mirror. Whereas the girls had been raised in harmony, peace and a friendly environment, the same could not be said for the boys. They had grown up more accustomed to war, the dark side of politics and the dark and dank ages without electricity. Well, Raydan-san, at least.

Time to deploy an old-fashioned tactic to ease their minds and get them thinking on something else: Change the subject.

"So, you were married all along, Raydan-san?"

Things went quiet for a few seconds. "..yes, I've been married all along. It never really popped up during a conversation with you before, so I didn't think too much on it."

"Yes, I saw that girl. Nice looking, sweet, relatively good brain... and you just didn't go to her after the attack?" Rev'keth said.

"Look, I-" Raydan defended himself. "Okay, running off was not a good move, now that I think about it... but let's just say my reasons were highly personal and leave it at that, okay? You have your secrets, so why should just mine be blurted out like public knowledge?"

The gith sighed at that. "Fair enough, just tell us something: Exactly how long have you been married to that girl?"

The young nobleman looked hesitant and then he mumbled something.

"What?" Akira asked.

Raydan mumbled again the answer.

"Again," said Rev'keth and leaned in closer to hear the answer more clearly. Again Raydan mumbled the answer. "Four... four ye- four years?"

"Yes, four years. Happy?"

_**Back to Nodoka, again... *sigh*, something really needs to happen.**_

Now most humans anywhere has never heard of the game called Sava. Obviously not, it is a drow game only.

Instead of normal chess, sava is played on a round slab with links and ranks on it to indicate how the pieces moved. You have 12 pieces; 8 orcs, 1 wizard, 1 weaponmaster, 1 priest(ess) and a Matron. The goal of the game is to capture the Matron and the different pieces had certain rules about how to move them.

How makes this game so different from chess, you wonder?

It's got a pair of little balls! …. Doh, that was horrible...

But anyway, the game sava has a pair of eight-sided dice for each player which they can roll only once per game. Depending on the dice roll, a player could use an opposing piece to eliminate another opposing piece.

In fact, this game is just one of only two ways the commoners can use to compete with the noble houses. The other involves assault but that's suicide. Even backstabbers know their limits.

Wait, why am I talking about such a fascinating (boring) game?

Well, because Nodoka just lost her 23rd match against her master. If it's any consolation at all, she is gaining on him. "Close, this time," he commented. "You had a good start, but when you moved your wizard towards my orc on B1, you left your Matron open for my priestess."

"I got no luck in this game," was her defense. "How come I am playing this even though I have no experience of this before?"

Gromph gave no answer to that, relying on her using her book to read his mind. There was however, another reason why they were playing this. "Again," he said as he rearranged his pieces. Nodoka sighed and did the same with hers, using her magic telekinesis.

They were having a go at the game because it was a good exercise of the mind – a wizard's most potent weapon, not the spells he prepared for the events ahead. It wasn't the power of the spell that mattered, it is the choice of the spells. Sava might have been a poor analog of a wizard's mind, and she was fairing worse than he had anticipated, but if the mind wasn't exercised properly, then the wizard would be an appallingly bad one.

And no matter what people would say about humans... for some reason beyond comprehension, humans always turned out to be good wizards. Of course, this girl didn't have natural magical talent for it but when it came to wizardry, how did that matter at all?

"Shall we decide by coin toss as to who starts off, again?" Nodoka asked him.

"You may start off," he said instead. This was not unusual. He dictated how they would start. Sometimes it was his turn first, sometimes it was hers, other times they decided by coin toss or just by trying the dice of the game. He did this course as a means of keeping her sharp for what could happen. Predictability was a bad omen.

Nodoka decided this time to cheat, to see if she could win this without getting caught. Her diary was hidden, though she did have her items to help her there.

This time, it was a clear improvement. Nodoka quickly took his weaponmaster, only to find his wizard jumping about. She nailed the wizard with her own and then narrowly avoided the priestess.

It took about 20 minutes or so to finish the game, with her as victor over him for once. He didn't seem indifferent about it.

"Interesting. You kept losing at it for a start and now all of a sudden, you win," he stated a bit quietly.

If there was any rule in drow society, it would go like this: Don't get caught. "Well... people tend to learn more from defeat than victory, even if it's just a game. I, merely recalled the previous games to improve my strategy this time."

Gromph merely gave a hmph. "Very well. But it is suspicious nonetheless. Not many humans has ever beaten one of us at our own game. It would almost be like... as if you knew my every move."

He wasn't even hiding it. Nodoka still read his mind and he told her that he knew about her diary and the incident in the temple. Frankly, reading his mind alone was scary. Her stepping back was all the proof he needed to find out she was reading him.

"Um... am I excused, Master?" She asked him, willing to get away. Plus, the time was approaching her bedtime anyway.

"In a moment," he replied. "Just tell me a bit about this... Negius Springfieldes person."

The first thing she did was correct him about the name.

_**Well, I guess that's it- Whoa, hey, whoa, what about Asuna? Oh yeah... bet she's having a good time.**_

"Just what has gone wrong with my life?" The redhead screamed over the roars of the oncoming demons. They kept coming at her and her "colleague" for several minutes and every minute almost felt like an eternity. But every demon, every fiend, was bashed away by her martial skills with either Muay Thai or her Hama no Tsurugi with general ease. They were more a nuisance than an actual threat to her.

"Dodge. Duck. Step. Thrust. Ha-ha! Slash. Kick." You-know-who was having fun, at least, with him cutting up the demons with his swords and occasionally using his pistols. "What's the matter? Getting tired?"

For once, Asuna was glad that he was using his mouth, to taunt the demons. But it was because of that mouth that they ended up in this situation. "Squeak!" Boo was helping her as well by giving off little squeaks (I know, I know, I don't want to be redundant, it just turns out that way) from various directions so she can react in time to counter it.

_Woosh, slash, bash,_ the sounds of battle came up from nowhere as they fought. The demons were no match for her but she felt a more broader view on how they fought these things in the past. Apparently the gith did not have powerful magic like Negi around constantly and while she was magic-cancel, the gith were definitely not. They would have a much harder time.

"Isn't this fun, Asuna?" Deadpool asked her when they collided against each other. "We're racking up XP like there's no tomorrow!"

"It's your fault we're stuck here!" Asuna deflected one blow from a shadow demon and grabbed its neck to snap it off. "This is not a game!"

"Aw, but this is based off a game! Heck, we're fictional characters, even. We could handle this with ease."

"Just what is wrong with you? Ever since I came to this planet, I've been ambushed, nearly had my brains chewed out, transferred to another dimension of the same planet, stabbed, annoyed, bones crushed by fall and now I'm being overrun by demons that cannot be negotiated with!" Asuna wiped out three of them with her sword. "You are not helping the situation at all!"

"What? I'm a great aid," he argued. "If it weren't for me, you'd be leveling up a whole lot faster. Plus, the demons would probably be too much for you, anyway." *_Rrrripppp!* _"Shirt-ripper!" He shot the demon that did that.

"I'm not blaming you, but we could have avoided all of this if you had just kept! Your! Mouth! Shut!" For extra punctuation, Asuna had bashed in a different demon's head per word. "Oh, screw this."

_**Kankahou upgrade!**_

"Whoa, where did that come from?" The merc said.

"Who cares?" Asuna went all over the demons now with intense speed and strength. The redhead hacked and slashed them with her sword and bashed the rest with her kicks and punches when the sword was not enough.

This immense power was seen as too much for the demons and they began to fall back in favor of the greater ones moving forward.

"Oh yeah! Now they send the big ones. Level up, here we come!" You know, I'm starting to get tired of this guy. "Hey!"

Asuna panted heavily. "...can't keep it up for very long..." When she saw the big demons approaching, she sighed and heaved up her sword again. "Alright, bring it on!"

Then something rushed on ahead of her. "Heh?" Whatever it was, it was small and glowed like a fictional bullet. It hopped around on the demons and impacted on them with tremendous force. It even made little holes in them, made them bleed.

Three of them dropped dead after about 25 seconds of endless barrage.

And it freaked out the demons enough to run the other way very fast. "What the?"

"Did you do that?" Deadpool asked her. "Alright, I'm not gonna ask you out or anything, anymore. That could actually kill me. Or hurt me very, very, badly."

"As much as I'm pleased about that, I didn't do all that," Asuna told him and immediately regretted saying that to him. "So what did?"

"Squeak." Much to their surprise, they saw the glowing thing sprint away from the demon corpses that faded into dust. It turned out to be Boo.

Boo. Using Kankahou from the looks of things.

"I once saw a dog version of me using guns, this is nothing."

"Hey!" Saber called out to them from a far place, closer to the castle. "The road's clear now!"

"Where were you?" DP asked the knight.

"You were not the only targets for the demons. We took a different route." Deadpool had to lead Asuna up to them, since she was simply stunned and confused over something. "What is it with Asuna?"

"No," the aforementioned girl said.

"Huh?"

"No way. Just... no way. I know it's Boo and all, I know he's attached to Minsc and all... but no. He shouldn't do it. I don't care if he's a... miniature, giant hamster from the far reaches of space or whatever, rodents just can't do Kanka."

Whilst Asuna rambled on and on with how the whole thing looked ridiculous and started to sound more like Chisame in the department, Minsc stepped over to his witch and asked quietly, "Do you think we should tell her?"

Looking at their friend, Aerie simply replied, "No."

**A/N: **_I decided to pop up to explain. This is it for now, I guess. I didn't want to cut down on things, I just couldn't find enough to write about for the moment. Now, let me get a few things down:_

_To vastler75, I am sorry for giving you a wife, but I would like to point out that you were content with what I would latch onto Raydan at the time I mentioned it since he was slated a nobleman in the character sheet you sent me. Nobles did have responsibilities attached to their positions and being married at a young age was not uncommon. The age of consent has been set at 14 due to majority vote. You had set it at 18, but you were outed by two others who set it at 14. As a sign of reconciliation, I'll give you something really cool over the Skype chat. I hope you will like it enough. Also, this does **not** cancel the request you made._

_Does it count as a pairing if they talk about each other? I like to think so. I got a few complaints about progress between Negi and Nodoka being slow, but guess what? They are on _**_separate worlds._**_ Of course progress would be slow! I ain't Jesus Christ and I ain't planning on bringing in a Fixer Sue for that problem! That'd be too much! I fully intend to use Chekhov's People to handle it, okay? Well, apart from that ranting, things _will_ proceed between the two. You people just need to have, what do they call it nowadays... patience._

_I got into an argument once with a friend regarding the act of killing. No names being mentioned for legal reasons (or whatever) but I respectfully disagree with the idea that killing is always evil. As Sir Terry Pratchett said: "__If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.__" A Good man will do so because he has the firm belief that what he does is right and he don't want to brag about it._

_Well, that's it for now. See you next- what? What's this? Due to, blah, blah, blah... delays, blah, blah, blah, immediate remedial of the situation in favor of cliff-hanging with scenario... wait, what? I gotta write it now! That wasn't due until the next chapter. What do you mean readers are impatient? They really wanna read this? No, no, that's not in the contract! I can't just- oh, come on! I've already done the Author's Notes!_

…

_Fine, but if the fans get furious, it'll be on your heads. Okay, everyone, before you continue down to the Review button, read the following in bold:_

_**1. I have planned for a happy ending of this fanfic. This is now confirmed.**_

_**2. Negi and Nodoka will reunite before I am finished with it.**_

_**3. There is a very good reason why Healing exists.**_

_**4. If any of you happens to kill me, then the happy ending will be scrapped and gone for good.**_

_**5. Any of you who feel queasy already because of the foreboding warning signs should stop here and wait patiently for the next chapter instead.**_

_Well, that's about it. Here we go._

Okay, the last thing she remembered was that she had been instructed to go buy magical material components for herself in preparation of an "exam" within the week.

Going out on her own was probably not a good idea. Taking Heebie with her was, though. And her weapons. Staying for a long time with the drow will teach you a thing or two about being paranoid enough to stay alive. You'd think you've seen how paranoid you can get after having seen master Rincewind regarding his office at Greenwood's. The dark elves could teach him more than a thing or two.

The Bazaar was... awful, to say the least. She remembered that there was this one merchant who was selling a rapier and demonstrated its strength by impaling a tied up slave on it. And then there was that high priestess passing by. That one killed a kobold that wasn't paying attention enough to address her. Then one of her soldiers stepped on a spider. That got even worse.

Her own nature put her at a disadvantage with the shopkeeper and it led eventually to that she had to utilize force and Heebie to get a reasonable price with him, much to her own chagrin over the situation. It got him excited, of course.

Then she bumped someone named Shakti Hunzrin, whoever that was. A small talk at a sausage stand (Can you believe it?) revealed that Shakti was an old acquaintance of House Baenre and next in line to become Matron of house Hunzrin and she was in no rush of getting there, apparently.

And then...

Oh wait, Nodoka found herself in a cut off gorge in what seemed like a bird's nest. And then she found herself fleeing from two giant flightless birds that were hungry. Someone must be after her life again. You'd think they'd stop after what happened to the last assassin they sent.

Someone got wiser and waited. Fortunately, they neglected to take away her pistol. They recognized a knife when they saw one but a pistol? Not so much.

Nodoka saw one of the birds again and fired at it in nonlethal areas in an attempt to drive it off. It worked, barely. The bird retreated but stayed around, waiting for an opening when she couldn't use her pistol.

She couldn't make out what was worse: Being eaten by giant birds or getting "detention" for not showing up at the lessons. What to pick, what to pick...

"_We run a tight schedule, Miyazaki," Gromph tells her as he brandishes the beating rod. "Slacking will not do, at all."_

Giant birds it is.

Nodoka rushed it and the bird followed her. The other bird heard the commotion and followed a distance away. She used every maneuver she had learned to avoid the bird's deadly beak until a chance presented itself.

And then she shot the bird in the head from behind with a lethal shot. Some patrol must have heard that one.

She didn't even bother with waiting on the other. She had laser targeting and she used it.

"Hey, what's going on here?" A voice called out from the dark. She knew the tone. Drow. A patrol.

"Over here!" she cried. "Mind helping out for a reward?"

"Gladly," was the reply she received and a rope was sent to her from a cliff. Perhaps things were going her way, after all. Still, detention would be waiting. At least she had a good excuse for when she got back.

Then she noticed the smirking priestess standing among the soldiers who were not from house Baenre. Let's make it IF she got back.

"Heh. I'd have expected the diatryma to have gotten you," the priestess said first before Nodoka was hauled up roughly by the soldiers.

_Protect..._

It wasn't hard to figure out what was going on. Nodoka started to recognize that the priestess at least was from house Vandree. They had that nasty habit of making drinking cups out of human skulls.

…

Oh no, not if she had anything to say about it.

Nodoka struggled hard but they took her pistol away and then they turned the arm so bad it broke. The bookworm knew they were strong but this strong?

_Investment..._

The female took a longsword from a soldier and smiled. "I don't know why Baenre bother to have a little human in their ranks and palace, walking around like a firstborn noble, but it doesn't matter."

"Baenre and Vandree are allies," Nodoka argued to her. "Why do this if it was the business of the first house?"

"Politics has nothing to do with this," was the counter. "Drow are superior to you humans, anyway. I care little for what Baenre tells me or my mother. I will ensure that Vandree will be first house of our city." She took the tip of the longsword to Nodoka's chin and inspected the girl. Or rather, her head.

_Protect... investment..._

"Ooh, you have such a cute little head. I shall savor the finest wines in it."

"Don't you understand the consequences of what you're about to do?" Nodoka asked her. "Baenre will take offense for this, I'm sure."

The priestess looked at her blankly and then nodded for her troops to hold the human down and she put the blade of the sword on the back of Nodoka's neck, searching for a good spot to chop it off. "Why would Baenre bother with just the death of one single human, huh?

"You think that they will come save you? As if they cared about some foolish little human." The priestess raised her sword after having found a good spot. Even so, the blade was not very sharp so it would take several slashes to cut off her head. "I'm sure that they would resurrect you and all that, but knowing their own hatred of humans, you'd just become a zombie in their army."

And just, at that point, when she was about to bring down the first slash, something said in a deep and powerful tone, _**"Protect..."**_

Everybody froze up there. "What was that?"

Nodoka recognized the voice. It wasn't distinct or anything but the tone and the harshness was enough. Of course, she kept her mouth shut.

"_**Investment..."**_The voice said this time and the priestess and the bookworm realized what was going on. It was easy to put the words together.

Protect the Investment.

There are times when you are in trouble that you say "Uh-oh." And then we have the times when you just simply say "Oh sh-

* * *

The massive energy explosion and the crimson red light disturbed Gromph from reading his book. Outside he could see at a distance a huge devil army swarming through a tunnel and attacking Menzoberranzan.

He sighed, closed his book, lay it on the table and set off to halt the army as best he could. On top of all this, he had a very good (and accurate) idea on how this army came to be attacking.

When he got to the main hall, he was joined by his sister Quenthel, all ready in mail armor and brandishing her whip along with a silver mace. "I sensed it as well. What is going on?"

"Devils," he answered.

"I knew that," she replied. "What is the cause of the devils attacking, I meant?"

"I don't know just yet, but my apprentice sense has been tingling for a while. Miyazaki is involved in this, I am certain of that."

Quenthel didn't say anything and focused only on fighting the devils.

* * *

It was chaos. The devils didn't care who they were attacking, anyone within the city was a target to them. The slave districts were further away than the drow districts but the fiends would overrun that eventually. The drow soldiers had set a line of defense, holding it against the major swarm against the devils, using ambush tactics and barricades manned by both dark elf and slave troops to stem the tides.

Wizards were running around, using wands and what spells they had in their minds to combat the fiends. Most were not prepared to banish them back to the Nine Hells. The clerics could heal, barely, but the enemy was just too many to fight off effectively.

Baenre focused primarily on the barricades, having their nobles command the soldiers and their trained lieutenants focus on the other houses.

Quenthel was right in the middle of the fighting.

Her mace was made of silver, the single most effective material to use against the devils and she was both matron of the 1st house and Mistress of the cleric school for a reason. Only twenty years ago, she was hailed as a dark hero of the city after the War and now those same skills that served her during her mission were more than useful to her now.

Likewise, Gromph had dealt with internal problems whilst Quenthel had been away. He may not be loaded with the spells to take care of a massive army of devils, but he had prepared to deal with an army.

His lightning bolts and illusions worked surprisingly well against the fiends, though he did complain internally that there was simply too many of them.

Quenthel dodged their attacks individually and used openings in their defense to bash in their heads with her mace and her whip stung the devils en masse with its venom.

The annoying part was that the devils could summon more and more of its kind every few seconds and they were in no hurry to leave.

But why were they attacking, anyway? Was this a ploy developed by that githyanki wizard? Had he arranged for this to happen, to live up to his title "Devil trapped in Mortal Flesh?" Maybe. For someone to have gained that title would suggest that he really was a devil trapped inside a mortal shell of a dead husk.

That would have been true, were it not for the fact that a gate opened behind the drow lines and githyanki soldiers wielding their strange weapons and wearing armor not much like mail or plate. And then they opened fire on the fiends, not the elves.

"What?" Quenthel asked upon seeing the barrage upon the devils. Her brother came up close as well to find out. "Why are they shooting at the devils?"

"Let's find out," he said. It didn't take long before they saw one gith in particular with a squad, wearing a blue colored armor with a helmet (specially decorated with wings of some sort) and having a sword on his back along with a fire weapon. "You must be the one in command."

The gith looked at them for a brief moment before replying, "I am. General Osyrimon, 17th Imperial Legion. This is the 6th company. Excuse me," he said first before answering a static noise. "Heavy weapons, deploy at barricades and provide cover fire. Snipers, find high spots and take out the commanding devils. Gods, I can't delegate anything if everyone keeps coming to me."

"Ahem," coughed the matron.

"Sorry about that. Any questions you got?"

"Yes, one so far," Gromph said in a harsh tone. "Why would you githyanki bother with coming to our aid?"

"Easy. The devils are not caused by us, and I have a specified duty to protect those who need it. Regardless of race and moral code. Normally, I'd just kill you outright, but the fiends are worse than you, so it is a lesser of two evils that I come to help you. Besides, it's not just you drow who are under attack. There are other races as well here who could use the protection."

"Weren't you under orders by Fashtar to attack us as well?"

"I may be, but those has nothing to do with what we're doing right now. We got strict regulations to follow and just doing nothing whilst having orders is just insulting. I'm sticking to it, even if I will get a harsh call from Chain of Command. Now if you'll excuse me, I got an army to lead and an army to hold back," Osyrimon told the two.

"That won't be necessary," Quenthel told him and the general got interested.

"These devils are summons by someone," Gromph informed him.

"I know that," the general said.

"Then you should know that the best way to take out an army of summons is to take out the summoner himself. Your troops might hold the devils back but it won't be enough to defeat it entirely."

The general looked over to his personal squad of troops and then to the sites of battle where the gith and the drow fought back the devils, with mixed results. "Alright. I'm up for that idea but it's a single line straight to the summoner: through the devils."

"Not exactly," Quenthel interrupted him there. "We have a shortcut through another tunnel. It'll take us straight to their rear as they're most likely too focused on attacking our front."

"I'm all for that," the general agreed. "Ral, you're in command till I get back. The rest of us, move out! We got a summoner to stop."

The githyanki general got a fast transport to take the lot of them away through a separate tunnel not far from the devil onslaught. It would probably be a matter of time until the fiends learn the recent deployment.

* * *

The general's personal squad consisted of a heavy weapons user, an engineer, a field medic packed with gel, a pair of ordinary soldiers and the general himself, all in similar skintight armor and helmets with transparent visors. Their control guy was Ral, who had been replaced by Gromph, temporarily. Quenthel was also part of the group going around the devil army.

The transport was small and cramped, even if it was built for holding a total of 14 soldiers in one go. Sitting space was sparse and the drow wizard needed to do an inventory on what he had for use against their foe. On top of that, he received a small pistol.

"M-3 Predator pistol," explained their engineer. "Same principle as one of your hand-crossbows, only you don't need to reload it every single shot. Careful, though. Squeeze the trigger too many times and it'll overheat. You'd need to wait for it to cool down until you can use it again."

"Much obliged," the wizard replied to her.

"And me?" asked Quenthel.

"Sorry, madam, but that was because he needed it. Your mace is potent enough to make more than a dent in the bastards, and you got better protection than the rest of us. He only has that many spells."

"You have been doing this a lot before, have you not?" said Quenthel to them in general.

"Ever since we got reformed and all," said Osyrimon. "It was hard to adapt at the start, but the thought of having more troops by the end of the day in order to fight more the other sounded very pleasing."

"_We're approaching the rear now,"_ said the pilot.

"Okay, here we go," said Osyrimon. "We drop in, hit them hard and once we see the summoner, Gromph takes them down with what he's got. We'll keep the rest at bay ALAP."

"ALAP?" asked the drow together.

"As Long As Possible," explained their heavy gunner while preparing his heavy machine gun.

The transport opened up for them. "Go! Go!" Osyrimon went first out of the vehicle, accompanied by his soldiers and then the heavy gunner. The engineer and the medic went down after them, followed by the dark elves.

The sight in front of them was appalling to most of them. "That's just wrong," said one of the two soldiers.

In the center, floating in a crimson ball of light, the little human girl they had been looking after for the last three years was in suspension above the portal from which the devils poured from. Several drow corpses were lying about, with the exception of the female who was held down by a pair of ashibai.

And Nodoka was in constant pain because of the portal. The sight enraged the githyanki and made the wizard very cross.

"Well this makes things even worse," said the general.

"We don't need to kill her," said Gromph sternly. "As long as she is unconscious, then the portal should close."

"Some good news, at least," said the gunner. "but how do we get to her?"

One devil noticed the group and alerted the rest. One in particular, a devil larger and stronger than the rest with bat wings and a large axe roared to them, "Rip them to shreds! We shall feast this eve!"

Quenthel took forth her mace and answered, "By carving up a path."

Their heavy gunner took initiative (damnit!) and opened fire on the oncoming fiends. Most effective weapon against them was silver blessed in holy water (Goddamnit, again?) and he had plenty of silver going around.

The soldiers on the other hand were well equipped with their assault rifles and shot them in controlled bursts while Osyrimon and Quenthel took point with their weapons.

Forget romantic struggles of how heroes fought against tides of evil and the valiant attempts of stemming off hordes of darkness. This was just plain, swift, and downright fucking brutal combat with the two leaders just carving a path through the devils with martial force alone. No trick in the book was spared save the ones that called for a slow and agonizing death (or banishment in the devils' case) and neither of the two fighters was dull in their movements.

Osyrimon cleaved through them with his long slender greatsword that shone bright blue in his hand and Quenthel's silver mace combined with her whip was enough to wipe out the enemy in larger numbers than the general's swings. The rest of the squad took care of their flanks and Gromph stayed back with the heavy gunner. He knew which spell to use, but he was more keen on conserving his magic energy in favor of using his new weapon.

Surprisingly, for a medic, theirs was not afraid to go into melee, using his Omni-tools (or orange transparent/luminescent gauntlets in the drows' perspective) as weapons, having one extend as a blade and the other as a shield – at times when he needed protection. Otherwise it went into a blade as well.

One devil slipped by and got up to the two in the rear. "You won't cast any of your spells, mage!" it cried out against Gromph and charged.

Gromph merely cuffed it, threw it towards the ground and then shot it in the head with his pistol. "I didn't."

"_Mage, we need you here now," _The general's voice called him in telepathy. _"You're up for a clear shot now. Take it!"_

The archmage could see Miyazaki writhing in pain by the portal strain and took a simple shot with his pistol, just to get her attention to where he was. She noticed and he began his incantation of a very potent spell that she didn't have time – or capacity – to learn down in the Underdark.

Miyazaki merely spread her arms and accepted the spell for what it would be. He chose carefully as this one would not kill her for certain. Though the potent sunburst spell did have an effect on people.

The great sunbeam blinded nearly everyone in the cavern and engulfed the poor girl in the light.

* * *

_P.S: Hey, wait a minute, since when did __**I**__ have a board of directors? Did somebody scam me again? What's this? Oh, the script for the next chapter._

…

_Oh, that's real nice, fellas. Break the little girl further. What do you want me to do next against her? Have her break character and become a murdering psychopath with a fetish for leather? There's an option! I LIKE THAT OPTION! LET'S GO WITH THAT OPTION! RRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGH!_

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

_Screw this script. I'm making my own one._


	50. Expeditions, part 1

**Disclaimer**: Mahou Sensei Negima, Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha, Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple, Mass Effect (Technology) and (possible) cameo characters are created and owned by their respective creators, not me. I write this for entertainment for the masses and to improve myself.

* * *

**K:**_ RRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGH! Frigging-meddling-stupid-directors-I'm-gonna-kill-or-at-least-shoot-something- Wait, what? We're back on? Oohh... bugger. Uh, I need to go to the bathroom. I'll be right with you guys. *leaves*_

_V: *to one of the Cast* Executive Meddling?_

_Nyrath: Maybe. Though I don't exactly recall some board of directors being in charge of this._

_V: Neither do I._

_Nyrath: ...so what now?_

_Vastler75: V: How should i know, make an opening with a theme song, maybe?_

* * *

*Instrumental*

[the Camera is flying & it goes over a Castle]

#Title: Power of the Mind#

Kurikaesu sekai Nando te nobashitara

[in the Wizard School Nodoka comes on screen & starts looking around, Fasthar is watching her but then turns his head to the Camera with a smile]

Hakanai namida wa kuroi kokoro tokasu no?

[inside the Magic Keep Castle, Raydan is sitting at the Stairs before standing & walking out, Rev & Akira waiting in by the door; Drinde is seen infront of his Undead Army, zoom to his Face as he stare at the Camera]

Mebae dashita omoi ga mune ni hibiita nara

[in the GPS Yue & Emily are trying to Practice their Spells but Emily then yells at Haruna for being Annoying; Symon & Jashol sitting away from each other at a Fountain; Hina, Bax & Boris are seen in a Library]

Kimi no tonari de zutto kawarazu mamoru darou  
[Fate at the GPS outside Deck enjoying a cup of Coffee; Negi in his room; Ifrith standing on his Castle's roof & zooming in on him]

Ochita kibou wo hirotte Asu ni tsunaide yukeba  
[in a Dark Place Nodoka with her eyes closed is seen with a Grimoire in front of her, but as she open her Eyes the Camera rotate to behind her & she sees Negi looking the other way as she extends her hand to him]

Karamatta ibitsuna negai datte hodokeru  
[Fashtar is standing on in the dark with his eyepatch glowing; a brief scene of a battlefield in full action; Nodoka with a lot of Magical Energy flying around her & she's holding a Shinning Sword before it zooms to her Head & she points the sword at the Camera]

Hikari wo kazashite tamerai wo keshita

[in a City Nodoka charges forward with her sword, a female armored Gith with a Black Sword is also charging, both of their weapon Clash]

Agetakatta no wa mirai de

[on the roof of a Castle Raydan & Balan clash with one another, Balan shoots a Fireball but Raydan eats it]

Naiteru yoru daita mama nageki wo sakende

[Symon starts slashing his 2 Swords then trying to reach something off then transluminescent green energy; Rev charging a psionic blast; Ifrith looking Pissed; Fate throwing a Stone Spear; Kas-far Floating while there's golden rain-size lights falling]

Fumiireta ashi wo tooku no risou ga

[Hina with her Wooden Katana Fend off an Undead soldier; Deadpool points onward & Asuna facepalms]

Sotto iyashite yuku Tashikana

[in Mahora scene of the girls that didn't comes along in one screen; back-to-Back shot Chizuru & Spanners before the Camera pans up]

Kizuna wo tsuyoku nigiri susumou dokomademo

[Drinde with his arms folded; Negi on a cliff-edge looking to the sky; Nodoka with the Sword Soaring to the Sky before slashing the Camera & A BIG Magical Explosion is shown]

Kegare kitta kiseki wo se ni  
[the GPS group; Jashol & Symon; Kas-far alone; Hina, Bax, & Boris; Ifrith sitting on his Throne; Camera pans down while showing Mahora to a body of water]

_V: Hey, I think it turned out pretty good._

_K: VAST!_

_V: Oh god! *runs away*_

_K: Goddamnit, guys! This is not an anime studio! I make the story so I'm in charge! Christ, the Concritters are gonna be on my ass for this. I can't erase it, that would just erase the whole story and I'd have to start over. Oh well... *gets in the machine* I'll admit that the song is fitting and kickass and all that, but I really don't want this to appear every chapter._

**WE NOW CONTINUE OUR STORY.**

_K: Damnit, now I feel like adding an ending theme to this._

On worlds such as Toril or Earth, with several known and unknown cities, what matter was the loss of one? Empires have come and gone, kingdoms has risen and fallen. To know them all was impossible even for a dragon, that could live through every era of the world. The gods did not care of how many cities there were at the moment. They only cared about the cities where they had a presence. This was why they had clerics – agents that could travel far from their hometowns to investigate things that were a threat to their towns. Yet, amid the scores of cities on a world such as this, some shone brighter than the rest.

Waterdeep, Toril's only metropolis; Silverymoon, the great city famed for its order of knights and mages; Luskan, a competitive rival of Waterdeep; Calimport, the desert capital in the south of Faerun; Mithral Hall, home of the famous Companions of the Hall.

These cities shone more brightly than the rest and their names would never change in the hearts of its inhabitants and chroniclers. Many a strong warrior or a powerful wizard or sorcerer called one of these towns home.

Bruenor Battlehammer, eighth King of Mithral Hall, was one, though he had grown very old in his time and was approaching the time of his death.

Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, Lord Mage of Waterdeep, was another and he was very old for his kind. A powerful wizard, he was no doubt one of the greatest Toril had ever seen.

Alustriel Silverhand, Ruler of Silverymoon, yet another, though she had one day mysteriously vanished from her home and the knights had gone on a quest to search for her.

Heroes everywhere who had carved the name of their city into the history books and adventurers who longed to become like those heroes so that their homes would shine as bright as the great ones.

Earth has its own fair share: The Big Apple, for instance, New York, probably the most famous city on the planet that have had its share of adventures and events taking place that it was starting to become a bother to some people. Paris, the capital of France, idolized as the capital of romance and cafes, with the tall Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph built by Napoleon Bonaparte. Rome, seat of the Vatican and home to the Pope and once capital city of the great Roman Empire. Kyoto, once seat of the Japanese Emperors and then we have Beijing, the great city of the People's Republic of China.

They say that for every hero they tell tales about, a thousand more are unsung. That is pretty much the case of Earth. However, our little blue planet has got its share of heroes too, and I'm not talking about the comic books. The Thousand Master, Nagi Springfield, is one hero, though records show that he was a real lousy at cleaning up. He used to leave that to his wife. Jack Rakan, "That guy you could stab with swords all day long and it wouldn't do a thing, goddamnit!" was another great hero and he was still around. And most recently, Negi, Nagi's son, who stopped Kosmo Entelecheia once and for all and was according to rumor the lost prince of Vespertatia.

So on a world of more than a thousand unique cities, what matters the loss of one?

That depends a whole fucking lot on the city itself.

_**Morning in Mahora**_

The clock alarm sounded in down in Konoka's empty bunk, forcing him to get up and shut it down. It wasn't annoying or anything, but it got him going again. The little girl sleeping in Asuna's bunk woke up as well to the sound and got down in her pajamas.

Negi had an important day this day. He and Alicia would go on a date later today after the school lessons. He got his usual green suit on and prepared all the papers while Alicia got breakfast ready, as well as the bento she had planned in secret.

"Are you sure we're to go here?" He asked her.

"Yes. It was a recommendation from Father," she answered. "I've never seen cherry blossom petals fly in the air before. I really hope this will be the best day ever." Negi could see that her eyes were sparkling with hope. He was hoping to take his mind off things as well.

If only that twinge of pain hadn't just jumped in at that specific time. _Huh?_ Confused and trying to hide it from Alicia, Negi took a look out the window, seeing not much. Except a small spider trapping a few flies in its web in the upper corner of the window.

If that was an omen, he hoped that it wasn't a bad one.

_**Oh... boy. Did I think this through?**_

Calm.

It was... calm.

Too calm.

She woke up, but saw nothing. Dark. She used to be scared of the dark. She could hear, though. She felt herself lying in bed. Her bed. It had her smell on it.

"...stimuli acting up... 's waking up," an unknown voice said as she opened her eyes and yet she still saw nothing. "I'll need a closer look," the voice said again and she heard faint steps toward her. "Um... Nodoka, was it?" it asked softly.

"Y-yes," she answered meekly to this voice. She felt hoarse in her throat and she felt her arm being in a cast and sling. "Wha-"

"Please, be still. I am a medical officer from the githyanki army," the voice explained to her right. "I need to run a scan. Can you tell me something you feel is wrong?"

"I... I can't see," she answered. "I keep my eyes open, but I can't see anything. I can hear and smell, but..."

"I understand," he complied. "Okay. I'm going to set a light in front of your eyes." She could see something faint in the dark, but not much. For a brief moment it was there, then it was gone. "I just moved it, can you see it?"

"No," she answered truthfully. Then she saw it again. "There. It's faint. I can't see much of it." Then it disappeared.

"I turned it off now," he told her. "I'm afraid I have to say that during the incident with the devils yesterday, you lost your eyesight. You have... gone blind."

And then she remembered. The devils pouring out of nowhere, using her as the focus point for their portal, then the githyanki came and fought them... and then her master had fired a great sunbeam at her. "Oh... god, that was horrible. This must be some really bad dream. Am I actually in Mahora? Am I home?"

"I hate to disappoint you at that point, Miyazaki." She recognized that voice anywhere. Master.

Oh, no.

"Hold still," the medical officer told her. "Scan is almost... there. I'm done. I'll have a full analysis of the damage done within the hour." Then he left, leaving her alone with Gromph. Wait, someone else was there as well.

It took a few moments before Gromph spoke up, "The examination is cancelled until further notice."

"Good..." she said weakly, then she felt the tongue of her familiar Heebie on her face, licking her carefully. Then she heard Quenthel speak up as well,

"I always did think that you had something suspicious to you. But consorting with the rulers of the nine hells..."

Nodoka didn't say anything. She just knew she made a face that showed she was ashamed of that bargain.

"I made an inquire to them. A small amount of persuasion to the right ones and you'll get any information you want," Gromph said and Nodoka still kept quiet. "One of your rings, that silver one with the ruby and the black insignia, it's the symbol of Asmodeus himself."

"I know," the bookworm finally spoke up and explained her bargain with him. In return for an army of devils to help her in the war against Ifrith and for further protection, she had to be employed in his service as an "intelligence agent." The word "Spy" was a more direct one. In full detail, Nodoka had to use her artifact book to read the minds of deities for the archdevil, though she was never told what he was going to do with it.

She did admit, she did not expect to have an army protecting her as an "investment."

"That does explain a lot of things about you," Quenthel said after a while. "And I don't blame you. Making a bargain with fiends of either the nine hells or the Abyss is something we teach at the academy of this city."

"I'd rather not go to the academy," Nodoka explained, then chided herself.

"Nor are you going to. It is only for the drow," the matron explained.

"However, I was contacted by a more potent devil while investigating," Gromph continued. "This one said that you worked for Asmodeus and you just confirmed it with your explanation. He did mention a few drawbacks to this bargain you have with the archdevil."

Nodoka nodded to this. There hasn't been a single time in recorded history that suggested a highly beneficial bargain with the Devil for the one that asked for one or accepted it. No way this would be an exception.

"There is an unspecified schedule on when you go out to gather intelligence for him, but it appeared that you failed to mention one aspect of this bargain; which he seized upon immediately.

"You work for the Lord of the Nine Hells for the rest of your life," he finished.

Now at this point, a person would be shocked, gasp, and try to deny the whole thi-

"Fuck."

What?

"That wasn't what I expected to hear," Gromph said, his eyes slightly wider over what had been said and who had said it.

"What kind of word is that?" Quenthel asked.

Nodoka stayed quiet for a beat before replying, "It's a very vulgar word back home. It means a lot of things at the same time and it's generally not a word one is expected to say unless accustomed, angry or just... down."

A beat.

"I assume you're not accustomed to saying that word," Quenthel said after the beat.

"I have only said it twice my entire life," Nodoka told her "and I have good reason to say so this time."

"Can't be much, if I had to guess," Gromph said in monotone.

"I was abducted from my home – my real home – by a race of aliens led by a bizarre wizard. Imagine waking up in an unfamiliar place, hoping it's a dream and it turns out to be real," Nodoka countered, her voice getting louder the more she spoke. "Worse still, I had no friends with me. Just me and a small group of complete strangers to one another. I made a break for it, but I got caught by the warden. First person I immediately would call a bitch. She tortured me and another who stood by for simply being human and having the gall to put a hand on her for resisting.

"I got a small pause after that, but then I got thrown into a civil war with an all-powerful King with **me** as the rebel leader. To top it all off, I meet an old opponent I made the mistake of thinking he was dead and I got a handful of companions, no one close enough to take him on. Then I lose my own arm to yet another threat and following that, I get enslaved by Illithids.

"And now, after what seems like a long break, I now wake up blind after an incident and then learn that I'm stuck for life working for a ruthless, evil master of a Hell! Everywhere I've turned since being abducted by the githyanki, my life has been in utter ruins. Does that sound like "not much," Master?"

Gromph kept quiet on that, pondering about what to do next. He hadn't heard the real story and he didn't know fully what she meant. Of course, he had at first believed that he was dealing with a girl spoiled rotten. It turned out to be that way, but not in the fashion most would expect.

"I- just... I need to be alone," she finally said quietly. Sensing his master's distress, Heebie hissed dangerously at the two dark elves and seeing as this was a little furball that ripped off the rod of an ogre, they left the room and closed the triangular door.

Outside, the two of them had a discussion whilst moving away from the room.

"Three years. Three goddess-damned years and now this happens. We are owed a proper explanation," said Quenthel while removing pieces of her armor. "We get a human girl to train, she is more of a wreck than expected and now this? That Fashtar better tell us the full story."

"That's assuming we want to tell him," Gromph pointed out. Fashtar had made it no secret he would do unspeakable acts to them if they failed in keeping Miyazaki safe. "We need to fix this. Without him knowing what happened."

"And how do you expect that?" She asked her brother. "No doubt he's had scrying on her for some time. I've felt its gaze on me more than once when Miyazaki was around me."

"Same here. I did not pry, because it wasn't spying on me," He added. "Miyazaki's felt it as well but could not find the source herself." Then they noticed the githyanki general going toward them. "And here's the fun part."

"My medic just told me," Osyrimon said to them both. "The girl's gone blind."

"That's stating much the obvious," Gromph said in retaliation. "We are owed a proper explanation about all of this."

"I just follow orders here," the general told him. "One of my guys contacted high command and reported everything." He then took out a thin slab made of metal with a glowing screen. "This order came directly from the Emperor. I am to move my forces into the city."

"Already?" Quenthel asked, nearly out of breath for some reason. "We make one small mistake and you intend to destroy us already?"

"I'm just following orders," Osyrimon repeated. "It's **how** I'm following them right now. I will move in the soldiers to impose occupation of the city to ensure that no devils remain here in secret, but that's as far as I can help your cause. I am willing to give you a chance to mend this but if you can't, then I'm obligated to signal the attack."

"Your medical officer did say that he needed a complete scan of the extent of her damage first," Gromph pointed out.

"Another reason why I won't attack." The general put away the tablet for a brief moment. "I'm waiting for two things: my medic's scan and your plan on how to restore her eyesight."

Then two soldiers, one of the drow and the other a gith, came rushing up to them. "Matron. Archmage," the drow called. "It's.. it's the Council. They are demanding a meeting on the events that transpired."

"It's not just them," the gith soldier added. "Every matron of every noble house in the city is coming as well to attend. In addition, they all bring their most important members of their house."

"Why are they gathering?" Osyrimon asked of them both.

"It's obvious, you dumb male," Quenthel said in her matriarchal tone and addressed them all. "The noble houses were all involved in what happened. They had to see to themselves first which is why we haven't heard from them earlier. Now that they think they're safe, they'll be crying for heads to roll."

"Heads that are preferably not theirs," Gromph added. "Which is quite obvious."

* * *

About two hours later, Menzoberranzan had become a city under occupation. Githyanki squads armed with assault rifles and armor that couldn't be looted (apparently) patrolled the streets, maintaining a close watch over the inhabitants for signs of uprising and other threats.

Flying discs and hovering platforms overhead held up heavy guns with their operators ready and mages flew overhead to overview the whole city, ready to lay down a barrage of combat magic.

The slums were the worst. Packed full of some of the nastiest species out there, the squads went there with guns at the ready and not once did a squad leave another out of sight. Bugbears, orcs, trolls, minotaurs, humans, these were all dangerous opponents to the gith and they took no chances with anything.

Not even the sight of the heavily armed forces made the slum inhabitants back down from a potential fight.

In addition to that, the githyanki had to keep watch from any outside hostile forces like duergar, which had a city not far from the drow and they have been willing to get rid of the dark elves for centuries. The presence of the githyanki had spurred them on and they had sent several patrols to survey. Every time, only one survivor had come back, mentioning the brutality of the occupying army and warning the rest to stay away.

Of course, this was all happening while the noble house leaders gathered in house Baenre's chapel, the one which had the great moving illusion of Lolth which Gromph had fashioned for his mother decades ago.

The Council of Eight – eight was a sacred number to the Spider Queen – and the rest of the noble houses, matrons and their heirs, their wizards and weaponmasters, was gathering. Baenre chose not to display their weaponmaster, having assigned him instead to standing guard outside Miyazaki's room to prevent some assassin coming in again. The current leader of Bregan D'aerthe, Kimmuriel Oblodra, was there as well, since he had been the one in charge of protecting the girl in question.

Even the mysterious Spider Mage, who preferred as little contact with Lolth worshippers as possible, was attending. He sat alone, his mask a warning for the others to stay away, and waited for the discussion.

General Osyrimon, his sorcerer Ral and his medical officer, was attending as well, with several elite soldiers of the 6th company standing guard around them. Security was tighter than before and while the matrons could be expected to not raise their weapons inside the first House palace, the githyanki were not taking any chances at all.

Quenthel addressed them all first, "Matrons. There is no doubt you are wondering why a meeting has been called."

"A meeting you did not call, Baenre," called the matron of the 2nd house, Barrison Del'Armgo. "We demanded this meeting because of your shortcomings."

"Why is the leader of the githyanki army present here as well?" Matron Sholabar demanded as well.

"I am here to ensure the continuity of this city," Osyrimon defended. "I represent the Emperor of our Imperium in this meeting. We are in this as much as you are."

Sholabar kept quiet for that answer, not satisfied but not prying further than that.

"You all wish to know what happened not too long ago," Quenthel continued when the argument had quieted down. "Archmage. Will you explain how events came to pass?"

Gromph stepped up and the room took a different tone, as he was the most powerful male in the entire city and had their respect. A few syllables from him could destroy an entire House on their own. "Three years ago, I received a letter from a school up on the surface, named Greenwood's Academy. It was an inquiry where I would be willing to take on an apprentice from them to tutor for seven years. I replied to tutoring one in particular, as her student profile mentioned "unusual magic." That is how we have had the human female named Nodoka Miyazaki here."

This time Osyrimon stood up from his desk. "That is where my army comes in," he started. "Miyazaki stood under our protection for political reasons and we had orders that stated if she had come to permanent harm or the training failed, then we were to overthrow the Council of Eight and the drow in this city altogether."

"You stand under orders directly from your Emperor, are you?" Del'Armgo inquired of the general.

"I am. And we have moved into your city because of what happened with the devils assaulting you as well," he answered. "19 hours ago, a noble from one of your houses came and took Miyazaki from the Bazaar and left her to be killed by a pair of _Diatryma_ birds. She fended them off but then the noble tried to kill her herself. That is when the devils attacked. Ral."

His prime sorcerer, Ral, displayed an illusion of the one responsible. And the houses recognized the symbol immediately on her badge.

House Vandree was accused immediately.

"We believe that this Vandree noble acted on her own," Osyrimon stated once the argument had cooled down. "But regardless of whose fault it is, Miyazaki did come to harm during the incident." He then gestured for his medical officer.

The medic activated his Omni-tool and displayed a large blue hologram of a human. "This is a hologram of a human being. And this is Miyazaki." The hologram shifted to a figure more like Nodoka's own, with focus on her head. "The damage that occurred to her was that of a powerful ultra-violet light at practically point-blank range. Sunrays, if you will. The result became that her optical nerves were fried as the human eyes are not adapted for direct contact with UV light."

"That alone classifies as a possible permanent damage and thus forcing us to follow our orders properly," Osyrimon told them and the elite soldiers around them prepared their firearms. In response, the weaponmasters and wizards took their positions.

"I am not finished," the medic explained and everyone calmed down but still had their weapons at hand. "I also discovered that the damage is not entirely permanent." He shifted his hologram to focus on the optical nerves flashing red against the blue background of her head. "These nerves were fried, but not destroyed. In theory, a simple regeneration should be able to restore her eyesight and thus prevent the attack.

"I did requisition a regeneration tank from high command. However, with everything that is going on in the Imperium at the moment and the rules to maintain hidden from the surface realms above, it will be a month before the tank arrives. And we do not have that much time before Miyazaki's eyes are rendered completely inactive."

"How much time do we have?" A matron asked and everyone held their breath.

The medical officer reluctantly answered. "Less than a week. Four days from the moment of damage infliction."

The whole room exploded. That meant they only had three days left to do something about the situation but none of them had regeneration to cast. Lolth would not allow it. Why would she turn her eye on them to help a simple human? Everywhere in the whole room, the matrons were arguing what to do. A strand of healing spells would be insufficient to work and not many of them knew healing spells to begin with.

It kept going for several minutes before somebody spoke up, "I might know a way to restore her sight."

It took a while before the room quieted down enough for her to explain her knowledge. They recognized her almost immediately.

Shakti Hunzrin spoke up again, "It is a long shot for the moment but I might have the right method of healing this Miyazaki."

It took a beat before Gromph said, "Well, let's hear it. Time is of the essence."

"I have been to the surface realms more than anyone else in this chamber," Shakti told them. "In those travels, I stumbled upon a pool of healing energies, in the lands of Cormanthor, not afar from the borders to Damara. The pool could be what will restore Miyazaki's eyesight."

"Are you certain of that?" The medic asked. "This is quite sensitive damage we are talking here."

"It will work," she assured him. Shakti then turned to Quenthel and Gromph. "Mistress, Archmage, I would like your permission to bring Miyazaki to the pool on the surface."

"You could do as well with a potent wizard," The Spider Mage added. "But even if you refuse, I'll take her to that place." That was a warning.

"A moment," Gromph told the two and he along with his sister slipped away for a discussion outside the chapel. They didn't notice that none of the githyanki soldiers followed them. It was obvious, it was their house.

* * *

"Let those two take care of her?" Quenthel asked when they were certain that they'd be out of range. "Are we to trust a traitor priestess and some wizard who doesn't adhere to our laws?"

"Both of them are favored by Lolth," Gromph told her and received a slap in return.

"Do not speak as if you know Lolth, mage. I am her priestess, I know her."

"Of course you do, Matron Quenthel. I spoke out of person." The archmage took a few steps around the hall. "But we cannot overlook this opportunity to save our city from these invaders. And time is going short."

"I am aware of that," Quenthel told him in return. "But what should we do? I could try to pray to Lolth for a regeneration spell to cure the girl. That'd make it look more like we do what we're supposed to."

"Yes, that'd be brilliant," her voice said again but it wasn't her who spoke. "Why don't you just go the proper way and let them take care of her?"

"What?" Gromph said, completely off guard.

"Who said that? With my voice?" Quenthel said angrily.

"I'm here," the voice said. "No," it complained as Quenthel turned around. "You're doing it wrong. No – sigh, Turn. Your head. To the left." Quenthel did so and found -

A miniature, light-skinned, blond version of _herself_ wearing a white version of her usual outfit and with wings and a glowing halo, floating next to her.

"What?" was all that the Matron of the 1st house could get out.

_What? Who? Why, it's Mr Bunny! Hello, Mr Bunny! I have missed you!_

"Are you that much surprised to see me?" The figure asked her. "I am you. It is not that difficult to comprehend."

"You are me?" Quenthel asked the miniature.

"Pretty much as I am," Another told her on her other side. This one was a more demonized version of her, wearing practically nothing save for a black transparent shroud that swirled constantly around her naked body and having bat-like leathery wings and horns like that of a succubus. "We are both you. We are your conscience."

"Her conscience?" Gromph asked of them both.

"Oh, it is quite simple," his voice called out on his right side and the dark elves saw a miniature version of Gromph, wearing glasses and a long robe. "I am part of your conscience. The conscience is there to guide an individual to their goals, depending on which you listen to. We control your every action indirectly and each of us represent one aspect of your personality."

"And the damned rules demand that whenever one aspect appears to the original self, the opposing aspect has to appear as well." This time it was the opposite of the other aspect of the archmage. He was bald, no glasses and a bare upper body. "He is your Logic and I am your Emotion. She has her Good and Evil aspects out. It's that easy, damnit."

Quenthel looked at the two and then at her own aspects. "Why is it that I have a Good aspect of myself to start with?"

"Union regulations," Logic replied to her. "Every living mortal has to have a conscience that guides them through life. That means that everybody has to have an angel aspect of themselves. I for one cannot recall any exception to the rules."

"_Why isn't he jolly? WHY ISN'T HE JOLLY!"_

"Is there a specific reason why you have come out?" Gromph asked them.

"Yes, there is," Emotion told them. "You guys screwed up big time with looking after the Miyazaki girl. We are here to tell you how to rectify this problem as well as make sure you don't screw up this time."

"Hmm, I would not put it like that," Logic pointed out. "We represent your desire to have Menzoberranzan saved from the githyanki threat and from my point of view, the best way to ensure its safety would be regarding Miyazaki's health and caretaking."

"And the reason I have my Evil and Good aspects out is?" Quenthel asked the consciences.

"It's because we represent your display as a motherly figure to the girl, you bitch." Much to her surprise, her angel said that.

"Are angels allowed to talk like that?" Gromph asked.

"We all are," Emotion told him. "She just doesn't expect to have much say in this."

"Please let me finish," Good said. "You, Quenthel, are at the moment the closest thing to a mother figure Miyazaki has. A very twisted and cruel one, but a mother figure nonetheless. That you would fail to look after her is a blow in itself."

"So if I am a mother figure to her, why shouldn't I just try to heal her?" Quenthel asked.

"Yeah, tell her!" Evil spoke up.

"A proper mother knows when she cannot make up for past mistakes," Good told her. "You have looked after this family for the past twenty years since you killed your sister Triel for the position. When Miyazaki came here she had no such important figure to look to and since you are the one who leads this house and holds authority over the rest, she came to view you as one she could trust to look after her, if not protect her from danger. Since you failed to come to her, how could she trust you now to heal her?"

"I make one mistake and she doesn't trust me?" The matron questioned Good. "How does that even work?"

"She does have a point," Logic said. "I would not be surprised that your Evil aspect didn't want anything to do with Miyazaki to start with."

"Know your place, Male!" Evil cried at Logic.

"And that is all the proof we need," he said calmly. "Matron Quenthel, your Good side is at least making a proposal to redeem this situation that has been created. Besides, I have been talking with Emotion and we came to an agreement in order to ensure a successful training exercise for Miyazaki."

Gromph looked at him for a beat and then turned to his Emotion. "What did you have in mind?"

"It's easy," Emotion said. "We would like you to go to where she originally lived to find out what kind of opposition she will be facing."

"What?"

"Please hear us out first," Logic said before Gromph could continue. "Miyazaki is a girl born on a world completely different from Toril, and from the look of her knowledge, one more advanced than ours. For a full understanding of how her magic works and to maximize a successful outcome-"

"As well as to keep our city intact from the githyanki threat and get all their clever and useful toys," Quenthel's Evil pointed out.

"An expedition to where she lives would be a good idea to learn how to tutor her the best. Besides, your Evil agreed with it, since it allowed that you'd gain access to the same magic as her world has."

"I like the sound of that," Gromph said. "Any drawbacks so far?"

"Your Good told us that he agreed to this, as long as we didn't cause any deaths of anybody she knew very well," Emotion told them. "He didn't like the idea of her hearing third-hand that someone close to her had been killed by her own mentor. Friggin' angel."

"That's it?" Quenthel asked the conscience.

"Not quite," Gromph told her. "I need to know the exact location of where she lived. For that, I need to scry." Then he had an idea shifting through his head. "Or maybe I should try something new. I'll need time to write the new spell and we'll be off in two days at best."

"Is that really wise? Time is of the essence, Archmage."

_**Cutting away from the drow there.**_

Project Initiated: Replicating Outsider Manufactured Armature (Project ROMA)

Project Leader: Karl Gestr  
Project Assistant Leader: Satomi "Hakase" Hakase

Project Rating: Classified

Security: None. Herr Gestr insisted on no security guards.

**Log entry #1**: March 1st, 2004. It's 5am local time on Honshu Island. The samples we've managed to secure from Marbella has just arrived. Upon a first glance, they don't see much but the whole science team was squealing upon seeing the samples. I'm not so joyful because I can see what's wrong. It's all damaged and no way does bulk like that appear so thin without being looted. Someone got to it before we did. Either the Spanish or the Americans but I'm not pointing fingers yet.

Still, we have received quite a substantial amount of gear to work with. Our first priority will be to catalog everything as fast as possible. Find out what's useful and what's junk. And then go from there.

Gestr signing off.

**Log update**: Hakase here. 5:12am. I'm genuinely thrilled to actually be working with real alien technology. The design is pure mechanical in thought with anything to suggest a crew. It was fortunate that whoever looted the samples were sloppy; only a handful in comparison to it all were considered junk.

We can't analyze it all at once; I keep telling the team that but they are just ecstatic at seeing it. I admit I am too but we are here to replicate the tech into our own, not fondle and caress.

I am, however, more concerned with the damage that Chachamaru suffered over in Marbella. She is not fully functional and is still constricted to a back-up body. I dislike seeing her in such a state, but Gestr-san assured me that an analysis of her original body will reveal the cause of damage and further upgrades for protection against the cause. I'm uncertain of it, but he is the project leader.

I have to get to class. Signing off.

**Log update**: This is Freeman. 5:14am. I wonder really why we have a local teenage girl who has the reputation of sleeping in the local lab as project assistant leader but considering that the project leader is a bulky short Swede with the beard to match a Tolkien dwarf I'm not looking much into the matter. Much.

Me, I'm cool with working with so many alien trinkets. I feel like I want to take one home with me after all this, but the boss is very watchful. Makes sure we don't make a mistake. And by that, I mean we don't steal anything because such a trifling act could, and I quote, fuck up the entire project. Sigh, I can barely figure anything out of this. It's only by shape I could figure out what was a gun and what is a prosthetic limb. The design is just out of it. Who made these? What culture do they have? What is the function of that specific part? Why did they pick Earth to begin with?

It's all confusing. I told the boss all this but we were not assigned to just make a committee to discuss what to do. We're just gonna do it.

Works with me. Signing off.

**Log update**: 6:18am. Someone's been tinkering with the system. Everything looks fine but all our files has been looked up all at once. I've questioned the whole team but they haven't done anything. And I got verification that Hakase wouldn't do that. Plus, she went to get some sleep before the tinkering began.

One in the science team did notice something in the wreckage we've received. Whatever it is, it's either moving or it's not there. We keep checking our equipment and it's all fine, apparently. What bugs me is that it keeps popping up when we don't want it to or when we least expect it. We're keeping a close watch for it now. Securing the samples is our top priority and catching this "ghost" is part of that.

Gestr signing off.

_**In a library**_

The silence of the library, only interrupted by the noise of the local guards coming in once in a while, was starting to become a nuisance (no pun intended).

It had allowed her to learn the written language quickly though and shortly within that (with help from Bax), become fluent in the local language. She hadn't shaken off her own accent but that wasn't a big issue.

Hina had finally gotten some clothes that she could wear instead of her black metal armor and it was comforting to say the least. But she kept her thoughts on other things at times.

How was Nodoka doing out there? Okay, she had Symon and Jashol with her, but the pink haired girl couldn't help but consider what they were up to. The Sending had brought good news at least. But that was a while back. And things happen quickly.

Ayumu and Aika were trying to learn the language themselves, but the latter was doing it a lot better than the former. Ayumu was trying her best, but even the hobbo knows when she has had enough once steam blows out of the head slowly.

Boris wasn't bothering in learning the language. He was still in his "Soldier" mode. Watching the perimeter, finding something to eat for himself. He made the baby cry one time when he had brought back something akin to a snake. Hina wasn't sure if that really was part of Russian military training. At least they didn't have to spend money on the library's food.

Hina had lost count over how many days has passed since that battle. Four? Seven? It couldn't have been more than a week already. Where was Nodoka? Was she ill? Was she safe? What was that guy that attacked them? Was he beaten? Was he on the move?

The arrival of someone riding a large elk interrupted her train of thoughts. Someone else had come there and wanted to use the library. "Who?"

In stepped a heavily armored and bulky hobgoblin clad in scale armor made out of bronze and he had a large greatsword on his back. He had markings a lot different from the previous band she and the boys fended off. And the guy was huge, even bigger than Bax.

"Something wrong?" She jumped at the question and spotted Bax standing next to her.

"See him?" She asked her companion. "Hobbo's huge. Different from the rest as well. Recognize where he's from?"

"Not from afar- wait." Bax shifted his head for a better look and then his eyes widened before he ducked down. "Down," he hissed.

"What?" She whispered when they were in cover. "Do you know him?"

"Yes, that is one of the captains of the Paragon tribe. He has an appreciation for studying other cultures."

Hina nodded first but then remembered something about him. "Wait a minute, you're Paragon tribe, to. You should talk to him."

"Erm... er, there's uh... something I forgot to mention back when I first joined up with you," Bax told her and she gave off an irritated yet blank look at him.

"You got kicked out, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Hina felt her eye twitch at hearing that. "How can you get kicked out? Unless you break the standards of a group. What were you doing? Too soft for them?"

"No, nothing like that."

"He got kicked out for his unconventional combat style," the heavy gruff voice of the hobgoblin captain said next to them. "I could smell his alchemy bag a mile away and hear you two whisper all along."

Feeling slightly miffed, Hina gave an angry stare at Bax before sighing. "I really, really hope that this could turn out to be something good. Bax, get the others."

"_**Are you certain that this spell you crafted will work?"**_

"If you were to have any faith in the gift of arcane magic, Matron Quenthel, now might be the best of times," Gromph told his sister whilst they were inside Miyazaki's room.

The girl was asleep and unaware of the two's intrusion. The room had once belonged to a Baenre named Maevra but she had been killed by rebellious kobolds during a slave uprising that was the start of the Underdark War of the North more than twenty years past. So the room had been given to the human upon her arrival.

Gromph had also noted the cleanliness of the room; His nephew Prath, a student now in his 24th year in Sorcere – the wizard school – had kept a very tidy room in comparison to Gromph. The archmage had been very sloppy as an apprentice, usually sneaking in a bottle of wine every now and then but failed to keep his room clean. By drow standards, Prath had been very efficient in keeping things in order.

By comparison, this room made Prath look like an utter slop.

Where did she find the time to clean up? Granted she had a personal slave but even they were not this thorough. Had there been any light in here, the desk would have sparkled. The books were in perfect alphabetical order and every quill were collected neatly and stored in a box with two inkwells next to the box on the desk. Most shockingly of course to his sister was the lack of spiders.

Every drow had spiders in the ceiling of their room. Odds of getting bitten were ridiculously low and that was mainly due to them having an innate affinity for the arachnids. Here even the webs were missing.

Now all of that was not important if they couldn't fix her eyesight. "You are at least a better choice than Pharaun Mizzrym, brother," she told him. "He was an excellent wizard but a very poor companion and servant."

"Oh, I had simply no idea," He said in monotone. "I should have picked somebody else to come alongside you on your secret mission for the good of Menzoberranzan."

"Watch it," she warned him and he kept quiet after that.

Nodoka was heavily asleep and the honey badger was watching the two guests with curious eyes. It hadn't bared its teeth yet but it had shifted into a position that allowed it to jump onto either of them if it came to it. Little runt was willing to take them on, no matter what.

"So how does this spell of yours work?" Quenthel asked after a beat.

"We will travel to view her memories. I wrote the spell specifically to seek out memories beginning with magic events happening that day in her life. We should in theory travel directly to the start of the day when magic happened to her. Or when she first came into contact with it."

"In theory?" Quenthel asked him. Those two words had always meant that things would not go as planned.

"It just means we won't go to where we would like to go," he explained. "We will see the moments where she comes into contact with magic."

"Let's get it over with," she told him. "The sooner we shift through this, the sooner we can save Menzoberranzan."

Gromph started with the gestures of the spell, before the words were spoken. The arcane words being spoken in Draconic were each a beautiful syllable, calling back to an ancient time. As he spoke them, the whole room lit up and the two drow felt themselves drawn into someplace else.

* * *

_The first thing they heard was an irritating buzz from a little box of unknown material in a small, sunlit room._

_And they saw Miyazaki stretch out her arms with a yawn. This was a much younger version of how they had seen her, but now they saw that her hair bangs hid her eyes. The girl wore simple nightclothes that consisted of frills and pants too short to cover her legs._

"Is this her?"_ Quenthel asked. _"She doesn't look like much."

"_Yue, wake up," Miyazaki called to someone in the room as well. "Today's when we get the new teacher."_

"_Mmm... two more minutes, Nodoka," Yue replied half-asleep. The drow saw a girl shorter than Miyazaki with a clear forehead and underdeveloped more than expected._

"_Good morning!" Someone else came in through the wooden door and this one was more busty than the two first. Long hair, glasses and two strands of hair standing out above the rest of it. She wore something more akin to a uniform "Hey, sleepyheads, what's up? We get the new teacher today."_

"_I'm getting ready, I'm getting ready," Nodoka told her and swapped out of her nightclothes to get into her own uniform. After that she helped Yue get into hers. "Yue, we're gonna be late at this rate."_

"_Alright, I'm awake," Yue said. "Haruna, care to join us for breakfast?"_

"Please tell me that time is stopped for our real selves while this is going on," _Quenthel said through clenching teeth._

"It is,"_ Gromph assured her._

_It took more than half an hour to get breakfast over with. The two drow at least learned who the other two were: Yue Ayase and Haruna Saotome, both members of the Library Club like Miyazaki. Yue was a more controlled and calm person while Haruna had a personality much like their younger brother._

_Those two were her best friends, so their lives should be preserved._

_Now they were in a confined space, filled nearly to the brim with girls their age in the same uniform and wearing warm coats over them. They were talking about like it was the end of winter and the snow had just gone away. Quenthel had seen snow before, at least._

_Then a powerful gust of wind came out from nowhere and many a skirt went flying (along with girls screaming) to reveal the contents underneath. Gromph was unaffected by the sight._

_Then doors opened out of the confined space and the girls all rushed out, Miyazaki included, with her friends in tow. The space in front of them was cramped with girls, some used a board that had wheels underneath _(weird) _and at least one had a... mechanical horse of some kind?_

_The rush was fast and didn't last long. The girls changed their shoes to indoor _(Odd) _and then headed into crowded rooms up the stairs. Easily recognized as classrooms, the rooms were filled with girls of the same age as them and the one Miyazaki was in had a peculiar collection._

_A young girl with long blonde hair, one the same age as them but with ears longer than even elven ears and green hair, a dark skinned girl taller than the rest and carrying a dangerous air to herself and two twin girls as if they did not belong there._

_Most of the girls in the room were incredibly beautiful for their age, some even by drow standards. _"These girls are all the same age as Miyazaki?" _Quenthel asked rhetorically._

_They settled down, Gromph and Quenthel standing by the door. They heard that there was going to be a new teacher and they noticed a redhead was not being happy about it. And then the door opened._

_A black light bar came down first and went past the drows' heads to stop slightly above a young boy's head. Then it continued and landed on his head, revealing white dust. Then the boy unleashed the rest of the trap, falling forward to the teacher's desk._

"Ah, the teacher let his apprentice go first to unleash the traps," _said Gromph. _"Clever if a bit cruel to the apprentice. Unless this is part of learning to become a teacher."

"_A kid?" someone in the classroom asked and walked up to the boy. In fact, a few of them did. "We're sorry, but we thought that you were our new teacher."_

_Then the beautiful and tall blonde woman _[Yes, she is blonde] _spoke up, "Oh, but he __**is**__ your new teacher. Please allow him to introduce himself."_

"What," _said Quenthel and looked at the boy as he reassured himself by the desk._

"_I'm Negi Springfield and starting today, I will be train- er, teaching English here at this school. I will only be here for the third term but I look forward to getting to know all of you."_

"Wait, that's-" _The matron started._

"Him!" _The archmage finished and the two looked at each other. _"You knew of him, too?"

"I'm surprised you are shocked of this event, too,"_ she defended herself and then the class exploded in what could be best described as a child finding something it liked immensely._

_They all rushed at the boy and proclaimed that he was cute and bombarded him with questions about him._

"I can already tell that this will be a fun experience," _Gromph said flatly._

* * *

"Okay, so she didn't tell us how old he really was," _Quenthel said in their discussion after the lesson Negi had held. _"How come that a child his age was able to be made a teacher?"

"She did tell us that he was a mage, didn't she?" _Gromph said as he watched the younger Miyazaki walk down the causeway to a great building on the island in the middle of a lake. _"It could be seen that he is doing the job as a teacher to become a fully licensed one."

"And just why would he need a license? It's magic. It's something you just do if you have it."

_Gromph defended his case with a logical observation. _"In the human country Cormyr on the surface, all magic users has to register themselves before being allowed to use magic. And in the city called Baldur's Gate, there is an order of mages that arrest those who use magic without a license. It should stand to reason that the mages on Miyazaki's world undergo a field test after training from school to ensure that they can work in the normal society of their world without it for periods of time. After which, they gain a license.

"Personally I find it ridiculous that one should undergo such tests but we are not in a position to argue with them how they go through with it."

_They left it at that and then they found that Miyazaki had entered a library. Except that this library was larger than the Baenre library and it went on further downward with students actually walking on top of the bookshelves. _"She did not make up the library experience," _Gromph said softly._

_It took them an additional hour for something to happen. It gave them time to look around the complex of this academy. It was grander than anything they had seen before and do trees really get that big? _

_Then it happened. Miyazaki was carrying a large pile of books and walking down stairs when she fumbled her step and lost her balance to fall over the edge. The landing would have snapped her neck..._

_if it weren't for the gust of wind that stopped her fall and the Springfield boy diving in to catch her. _"Okay, so that is where it started," _said Quenthel._

_Then they noticed that redhead girl from class staring at the boy. Just as Miyazaki was waking up, the redhead, named Asuna from what they recall, grabbed Springfield and bolted for the woods. _"No! Damnit, we can't follow them," _said the archmage. _"We're stuck with Miyazaki."

"Another flaw in that spell you pulled, brother?" _Quenthel said with anger. Then she shook her head. _"We can't stay mad at each other. But now we have found a conflict. That Asuna girl knows that he is a mage, or at least now she does. She could be a problem for us."

"Yes, she could be. Now we should ensure to remember the faces of those we meet and ascertain what role they play in Miyazaki's old life," _said Gromph. He was certain that they would be most important in finding out just how they could save their city._

* * *

"_Evangeline-san!" Springfield exclaimed in shock as he saw that young blonde girl from class reveal herself._

"_Hmm, such power at such a young age... you really must be his son," Evangeline said and procured two vials._

"**His** son?" _Quenthel asked. _"We're missing a few details here."

"_Why are you doing this?"_

"_Didn't you know? There are both good mages and evil mages," Evangeline said as she threw the vials at Springfield and the spell blew up in his face. He was able to block it but he could not do the same for Miyazaki's clothes. Those were ripped to shreds until she was practically naked._

"They actually have spells that do that?" _Quenthel said. _"They must believe in that displaying nudity in public is a bad idea."

_Gromph kept quiet, because that did sound like hypocrisy. Drow did have laxer nudity standards than humans but even they knew it was dumb to just walk in a square without clothes. Yes, keeping quiet was the smart idea._

"_Negi-kun," came Konoka, the brown haired girl Springfield was working with and Asuna was with her as well. "What happened?"_

"_What the-" Asuna was more concerned with Miyazaki. "Honya-chan!"_

"_You're the vampire, Negi-kun!" Konoka asked the boy and Quenthel committed the traditional facepalm._

"_No, it's a mistake!" Springfield called against them, then looked over to the smoke where Evangeline had disappeared._

"_Hey, who was that?" Asuna asked._

"_Asuna-san, Konoka-san, please take care of Miyazaki-san! She's unconscious, but otherwise fine," said Springfield as he strapped his staff to his back._

"Hup, there he goes again," _said Quenthel. _"At least it's not as bad as that incident in the library he had with her."

"_I'm going to pursue the one who did this. There's no need to worry, you two go on home."_

"I am definitely refining this spell," _said Gromph. _"We need to be able to move about with more freedom if we are to learn anything at the rate this is going."

"How long until she learns?" _Quenthel asked._

"I'd say a month or so."

_Then Springfield sprinted away at a ridiculous speed. Asuna followed shortly after._

* * *

_They looked on with very blank faces as Springfield left the room and followed by Asuna who said simply that he really needed to find a partner. Someone next to Miyazaki said that if she were to become queen-_

"So she told us the truth about him being a prince as well," _Quenthel said. _"He doesn't look like one to me. Princes of the human lands have servants, regalia and weapons to fight the greatest of opponents. A vampire should be an easy match for him if he was one."

"Send a child to fight one of the most powerful undead beings in existence?" _Gromph questioned her logic. _"Yes, I can see that being a clever reality with humans."

_Every girl in class argued about who was going to be the more suitable girl for Springfield. The boy was going to have his hands full._

"They actually make swimsuits that small?" _Quenthel asked as they saw the girls trying to cheer Springfield up in the public baths. _"I'm buying one when we get there."

* * *

_Finally, the drow caught a break. Miyazaki had gotten a note from the boy a few days after her attack by Evangeline, saying that he would like her to be his partner. She was waiting for him behind the dorm building._

"Seems a bit peculiar, but it seems we finally get somewhere with this," _said Gromph._

"Now we get to see some magic of this world. All we need is Springfield." _Quenthel felt satisfied with this event that was coming._

"Oh, there he is," _he said as Springfield came flying in and landed behind the bushes before coming out._

"_Miyazaki-san," he called out running to her. Wait, is that the little weasel from yesterday on his shoulder? "Are you okay?"_

"_Sensei..." Miyazaki said in reply._

"That's all she's gonna say?" _Y'all got three guesses as to which grumpy lady said that and two of them guesses don't count. Ye get it wrong, I have a frying pan to beat ye ta death with._

"_Huh, where are the thugs frying you?" Springfield asked all of a sudden and guess which male made a facepalm this time as the conversation went on with him asking if she was attacked._

"_Well, Negi-sensei... do you really... want __**me**__ as a partner?" Miyazaki asked him and he went into whispering with his weasel in frantic. The drow picked it up as the rodent being his familiar. "Um... I heard that you helped me again, the day before yesterday when everything was happening with the vampire. I feel like I'm causing you so much trouble. I'm so sorry."_

"_No, you're not trouble!" Springfield said in reply. Gromph felt sick just hearing that._

"_So if there's anything I can do for you in return," the bookworm said while Quenthel tried to commit suicide by strangling herself, "I'll do my best to do it. So please ask me for anything."_

"Blagh, this is what we're expecting for the next few weeks?" _Quenthel asked out loud. _"Please tell me that we get to see something. We've been waiting for weeks for something to happen!"

_They did see the familiar about, making something on the ground. Then he shouted, "Pactio!" and the whole circle lit up in magical energy._

"Finally!"

"_This is a magic circle for creating a probationary contract with a partner," the weasel explained. "You make the contract and then the new Minster Magi helps and protects the wizard. In exchange, the Minister Magi receives magical power that doubles her blood circulation and physical energy! And it makes her skin silky smooth! It's a big power up both physically and mentally. Good stuff all around!"_

"It would be like as if he knew someone would be watching this," _The archmage said, finally satisfied with watching the memories. _

"_However, you're just a kid, aniki, so you cannot make a formal contract. It's pretty hard to choose a Minister Magi, so you're not gonna be so sure, y'know? And that's why we have the probationary contract system. Basically, it's a trial period! Puts a considerable limit on the benefits – shorter duration time, etc. - but you can have as many contracts as you like. Usually, only one person will have the formal contract, but the number varies on the wizard's capacity," the weasel explained further._

"Oh, good to know," _said Quenthel. _"Even with such limits, that kind of power could be what establishes us permanently as the 1st house. The others would be forced to obey us."

"Wouldn't that go against Lolth's will?" _He asked. Lolth did look out for too much order. The Spider Queen was a being of Chaos and if too much cooperation between drow was found, she stepped in. Likewise, she watched out for too much chaos. Chaos that could tear the drow apart. Would the houses of the city accept the permanent rule of House Baenre? Would they tolerate a queen at all?_

"_Wait, I have to kiss her?" Springfield exclaimed with shock._

"_It's the simplest way to establish a contract. There are other methods but they're a hassle..."_

"No wonder," _said Quenthel. _"We just need to find those other methods. I would not like to give a kiss to someone so lightly."

_And just as Miyazaki and Springfield were about to... Asuna came and smashed down the weasel, breaking up the contract circle. Just like the human children fell over, so did the drow._

"I am going to kill that Asuna bitch," _said Quenthel. _"I don't care what your Good aspect says, I am going to kill her for some reason."

"Assuming it is a really good one," _said Gromph._

_And then they heard Chamo's sad, sad, story and then Springfield started to cry._

"Oh, cry me a river! What about us? This was the only good find for weeks and now we're stuck with it until something else happens to this girl! Do we look like we can follow you? NO!"

_I'm not going to say who it was who yelled that at the humans._

"I am not happy right now." _Neither on that one._

* * *

"Can you see anything from up there?" _Gromph asked his sister shortly after they discovered they could float within a reasonable distance from Miyazaki and Quenthel had used this to try __and find the battle between Springfield and Evangeline._

"I see flashes by a bridge to the southwest," _she replied. _"They must be having their battle right now."

"We already know that Springfield wins, but it is agonizing in not knowing how he won," _Gromph said. On top of that, he was forced to watch Saotome commence in showing sketches involving Miyazaki together with Springfield and Ayase was trying to chastise Saotome for it._

_Was that position really comfortable for humans?_

_Later the next day, they saw Springfield being overexcited like a child __(duh!)__ about going to a different city named "Kyoto." What kind of name was Kyoto anyhow?_

_It turned out to be the name for an old prestigious city. Kyoto was once the capital city of the land that Miyazaki came from and it was filled with old temples and buildings that had become "international monuments" recognized by the rest of the planet. The architecture of the city was mingled with what seemed archaic and what was modern, with most of the modern buildings in the far distance._

"This is Kyoto?" _Quenthel asked. _"Reminds me of when I was in Ched Nasad, only full of humans. This is a human-world only, right?"

"Nothing suggests otherwise so far. Vampires look like humans, their golems... I would not be surprised to find a human bio experiment," _said Gromph. In his adventuring days, he had seen some horrid stuff committed by human hands. Even the illustrious Khelben "Blackstaff" had done some "questionable" acts in his time as a Lord of Waterdeep. _"What surprises me here, though, is that with so much magic going on and such danger lurking about, these children still go on with their normal lives as if there was nothing going on around them."

_Then they heard talk of love fortune stones and the class moved on. It didn't take long for some force field to drag the drow along with them to this place. Since Miyazaki went with them._

"So, humans go from one stone to the other with their eyes closed, and if they reach it, their dreams of true love become a reality?" _Quenthel asked, looking down on the class as Yukihiro, Sasaki and Miyazaki decided to try their luck. _"Yes, touching a rock will definitely help you in your love life."

"Wasn't aware you had a dislike for religious beliefs, Matron." _Gromph kept a close watch on them as the three girls walked slowly towards the stone. _"You know, being a priestess and all."

"I'm a servant of Lolth, the one true goddess in my eye. Why should I care for some human deity of marriage or the like? The humans can keep their faith, but once I see something happen from their deities, I'll recognize them. Not anytime before," _she put him in his place as she deemed fit. Beneath her._

"Of course, Matron," _he replied courteously. _"It is your decision, after all."

_Well, at least Miyazaki won. Wait, since when were they rooting for her?_

_That same night, it seemed that something new was going on and Miyazaki was still unaware of things._

_It took a while before Springfield and Asuna came back, holding Konoka in their arms, full asleep and then they went to sleep. Gromph and Quenthel were already asleep by then._

* * *

_The next day, they seem to have caught something interesting. Miyazaki successfully managed to ask Springfield to accompany her group around on for the day and the other group leaders frowned heavily, as they had hoped to get something with him._

"I'm guessing it's because of some tactical decision that he chose to go with her group," _Gromph said. _"Something happened last night, obviously and as a mage, he should seek the highest amount of advantages he can get if his students were in danger."

"Wouldn't that suggest that all of his students are in danger?" _Quenthel asked her brother._

"More like that someone in particular is in danger," _he specified. _"And that someone is in Miyazaki's group."

_Too bad it didn't come to some attack by an enemy wizard. They went to see deer in "Nara," and Saotome sprung the plan of ensuring that Miyazaki would get alone with Springfield and confess to him. As Konoka ran off with the other fighter in their group, "Set-chan" while Saotome and Ayase separated Asuna from him. From there, Springfield and Miyazaki went on to a temple with a great golden figurine of a large, fat man with a docile smile on his face. Guess who felt queasy at the sight._

_Then there was an accident with a pillar and Miyazaki ran away._

"Not again," _said Quenthel before the two were dragged along by the force field that contained with the certain range of her._

"This is getting bothersome," _her brother said._

"You think?"

_Miyazaki ran into Asuna and Sakurazaki, and spent some time explaining what she had done. Then a little speech came from her that caught the drow's attention. "Negi-sensei... is normally cute and childlike, just like everyone says. But sometimes he, makes this mature face, that makes me almost wonder if he's actually older than we are."_

"He's a human child!" _Quenthel spoke up. _"He can't be older than you, he just probably has gone through a lot in his childhood. Plus, he's a mage. He knows what is really going on with this world." _No clue as to why she told the girl that, even though she couldn't hear the matron._

"_I think it's because of Negi-sensei has a goal we don't have, and he's always looking forward, trying to achieve it. The truth is, I'm happy just to watch him from afar. That's all it takes to give me courage."_

_The drow looked at the girl for a moment and then at each other. And before they knew it, Miyazaki was off again. This time the drow were more prepared and followed on their own accord. _"So basically, she looks to this boy for courage. How does that make sense? Why do humans have got to be so emotional when they're young?" _said Quenthel. She was a happy little obedient girl when she was young and pushing her siblings about, only cowering in front of her older sisters. Then again, everyone cowered when it came to their mother. That was not a friendly bitch. Only Gromph could rival her as the most powerful male in Menzoberranzan._

_But he was only a male and automatically, subservient to their mother. _"I recall one specific girl in our house once being emotional and young. Certainly amidst our house when Triel was still Matron."

"Yes. Your own daughter, as I remember. She went rogue and fled to the surface. Shame. She was blessed by the goddess."

"Not the way she saw it," _Gromph replied shortly before Miyazaki caught up with Springfield. _"Ah, here we go."

"_Sensei, um... I actually..."_

"Why are you nervous? Just say it," _Quenthel ordered in an angry tone._

"_Love... love... love grated daikon radish!" Miyazaki exclaimed and guess what? The drow fell over. Again._

"This is getting ridiculous!" _Quenthel exclaimed in anger. _"We spend weeks listening to her being secretly in love with this boy and now when it comes to it, she can't say it! Grow a backbone, girl!"

_Gromph merely looked on his sister as she walked right up next to the girl's side as Miyazaki tried to smooth over the declaration of radish._

"I have had enough of your shyness, Miyazaki. Show some courage that you say you gathered just by watching him! Show him that you can be somebody!"

"_Er, um... Sensei... I," Miyazaki started off nervously._

"TAKE A DEEP BREATH!" _Quenthel yelled for _real _at the girl and she did just that._

"_I've liked you since the day I met you!" Miyazaki shouted meekly finally. "I, I love you, Negi-sensei!"_

"YES! Finally! It only took you weeks until you got here!" _Quenthel screamed. Gasping for air after that, she took a look at her brother who looked at her directly. _"What?"

"Are you aware that you might have had a hand in her declaring her love for the boy?" _He asked her and Quenthel looked at him with a twisted face wrought in confusion._

"What?" _Then she noticed her Good aspect floating next to her. _"No, not you! You did not have a hand in this!" _Her Good merely kept silent and had a knowing smile on her face._

"_Forgive me, Negi-sensei!" Miyazaki cried and ran away from the boy._

_Not surprisingly, the major thing that went through the drow's minds as they were slammed by the force field containing them to within a total range of 30 feet from Miyazaki was, "Oh no, not again." But aside from that, if it could ever be confirmed that the "Queen Bitch" of Menzoberranzan, one who believed firmly in that love was weak and soft, actually had a hand in helping Nodoka confess her love to Negi, we'd have a greater understanding of how the multiverse and its various forms of magic really worked._

* * *

_One long night of fighting with the other students for a "kiss with Negi-sensei" later, Miyazaki finally got her own Pactio card and Konoka seemed a bit... well, jealous over that she didn't. Still, now the drow had gotten some results._

"Finally, she got her own artifact," _said Quenthel. _"How did it work again?"

"Her artifact is a book that can read minds," _Gromph reminded her. _"And it seems to hold the power to penetrate even Mind Blank. It was able to read Lolth's mind and in so, proved that it could read the minds of deities."

_Quenthel nodded, satisfied with the answer and followed the girl, just as they spotted Asuna berating Springfield for bringing another girl into his pactio group. That reporter girl who questioned Miyazaki last night was also there and she seemed obedient enough to listen to Asuna's ranting about how Miyazaki was a regular girl._

"I wonder if that could count by now," _was all Quenthel could add to it before they began __summoning up their artifacts. _"Oh? Asuna does have one, too.."

"I wonder what that is capable of," _Gromph added. A couple of hours later, following a trip to a "photo booth", an "arcade" and another train, Miyazaki was actually using her artifact and following Springfield._

"This is finally the event, I know it." _For once, the matron sounded happy and was confident that they'd see something useful. _"Miyazaki had best prove that she is capable."

"Mind reading is a powerful tool and dangerous in terms of magic," _Gromph told her. _"It allows access directly to the enemy's thoughts and gain a significant advantage in battle."

"And how is it dangerous?"

"It marks you out as the first opponent to take out. Anyone would notice it as clear as day."

_Things got fast paced from there. Through the book they saw that Springfield and his allies were in trouble against another young boy, a lycan by the looks of things. That didn't help in that the battle raged right behind the girl's back while she read._

"You got eyes and ears!" _Quenthel yelled at her. _"Do they shut down whenever you read a book?"

_The book told them that the lycan was winning, aiming directly at Springfield rather than his more dangerous opponent Asuna. He was of course, distracted by a fog called forth by Springfield's familiar and a small floating version of Sakurazaki._

_It took a while before Springfield said he had a plan, but before the trio spying on them could learn, danger approached and Miyazaki withdrew her card. Wise move, just as that boy from the arcade dove right on her. Not knowing of the drow scrying on them, he gave her info that there was a fight and he'd undo the trap to release her later._

"That's the lycan," _Gromph said. _"His ears give him away and his attitude is like that of a dog. Brash and ignorant."

"_Um... my name is Miyazaki Nodoka. What's yours?" the girl asked innocently and one of the drow took a facepalm to themselves. I'll leave it to your preference on who it was._

"_Kotarou. Inugami Kotarou," the lycan answered with pride and then ran off. "See you later, pink panties onee-chan!"_

_He did tell her to stay put, but Miyazaki had no intention. Neither did the drow._

_One successful battle later, now the drow could analyze fully about the artifact._

"We know that it can penetrate mind shields and it automatically reads the mind of anyone she mentions." _stated Quenthel. _"Any weaknesses to it?"

"I noticed a few. Like you said, it automatically reads the mind of the one she mentions, but that in turn requires her to know the name of the one she reads. It also seems to have a limited range. About 15 feet or so. That's too close for comfort. Also, she needs to ask someone a specific topic to find out what she needs to know. That's similar to another spell we have in Divination." _The archmage wasn't too pleased about it. _"It shouldn't make sense. With that artifact of hers, she needs to be more efficient. That's one thing we can help her with."

"I thought that we agreed only to train her only," _Quenthel pointed._

"That means in turn that we have to help her have a fighting chance against the opposition she faces on the githyanki lands," _he defended. _"If her training were to fail, then we'd be doomed, anyway. This for instance, we can tweak. Instead of her learning the names of her opponents, she should in a sense, give them names. If kept to small numbers such as a scouting party or an enemy squad, she could tell them apart through their distinctions and personal attire rather than just their name. She could just give them a name based on their appearance or distinction."

"Okay, that's one thing. What else?" _Quenthel wondered._

"I noticed that they do have healing magic, without the blessings of their gods. We could look into that as well."

_The two dark elves discussed an initial strategy on how to improve Miyazaki's current situation training, right until the others came. Sakurazaki, Konoka, Ayase, Saotome and the reporter girl. Sakurazaki wasn't too pleased about the rest of them coming along. Plus, she looked a bit weary._

_They reached the main base of the enemy, only to find that it was a warm greeting they received instead of the coldness received from the lycan boy. There were more opponents to fight for certain, but Miyazaki wouldn't know of them, for certain._

_And apparently, the drow couldn't skip the bit where Miyazaki had been turned to stone by that white haired boy. That was another opponent to deal with. An intelligent one at that. So all the drow could do then was to sit and rub their thumbs, since neither of them knew any magic to practice._

_The smallest comfort they could get out of the situation was that Miyazaki had gone for her book rather than run._

* * *

_Eventually, everything paid off in the end._

_Several months of spending time together (in total four, so far) and training hard at magic were well spent. Gromph and Quenthel were more than relieved to know that Springfield was organizing an expedition to the Magic World. A short stay for sure, but the travel itself would provide more material than what the drow were hoping for._

_Quenthel had been in observation of the whole group now assembled. Asuna was marked out as an "anti-mage" fighter, with an innate anti-magic field around her that she could control on her own. Sakurazaki was more skilled than her, but she did not have that same field. And they had a vital weakness._

_Konoe Konoka, the healer. More powerful than any priestess she knew, the girl had learned more healing incantations than was originally expected. But she had no combat practice of her own. That was the weak link._

_Ayase had studied more thoroughly than Miyazaki but at least she had the excuse of being talented and both of them worked equally long on their magic studies. Saotome was a hard working conjurer, using her artist technique to create powerful summons. She'd be a tough adversary given the proper circumstances._

_What was more surprising though were other members. Asakura, the reporter girl, had joined up as their espionage expert and her ghost ally could help immensely there. The lycan boy, Inugami was also a member of their group, claiming he was a rival to Springfield. That made little sense. If they were rivals, wouldn't it make sense that they would try to kill each other? That's the definition of what a rival is._

_Karakuri, the vampire's golem, was there as well. There was something with this boy that drew old enemies to his side. Was it this thing called love? Sure, the drow had arguably heard of it before, but to see its effect for real. But it was impractical for them to try it._

_Hasegawa was a wild card. No idea why she was going along with any of this._

_Nagase on the other hand fitted right in as their rogue and fellow fighter. As was Ku Fei. That little foreign monk was devastating in combat. More so than any other hand to hand fighter they had seen before. Each of these fighters, though, could rival any weaponsmaster in Menzoberranzan._

_Yes, Quenthel had been observant of the whole bunch and then some others._

_Gromph, on the other hand, had taken his valuable time to practice. Without pause save for exhaustion, repeatedly for months, constantly. What few spells he had coveted, he was working on relentlessly on perfecting after he had heard the first cantrip to work on._

_There were gaps, obviously, that called for them learning other spells, but once they got to this Mahora place in infiltration, they would not come across such issues._

_Then Averruncus destroyed the gateport when Ala Alba had arrived there. And then sent the whole group scattered across the world. Gromph made a note to work on replicating that one._

* * *

_The next month or so, Miyazaki was in for some extra training as well as doing things that all adventurers back in Faerun did:_

_Looting and scouring old ruins. This was territory both drow knew all too well._

_Miyazaki had joined up with a new team, treasure hunters they called themselves. Quenthel had the more blunt title already: Looters._

_Still, they took the bookworm in and took her along for getting gold, magical items and treasures. But Nodoka decided to not go for gold and chose two magical items instead; a ring that picked out a target's true name and some kind of ear decoration that allowed her to read her book without her looking at it. That was a good move, though she could have gone for that scepter Quenthel spotted._

_Then they ran into this group called _Spartan Hounds. _Some heavy group of mercenaries and bounty hunters who lent their service to those who could pay. Fortunately, the group they met were not after them. They said something about explicit orders on their part, and that the ruins still standing needed the support they were sent to supply. The drow did wonder what they were gonna do with that big chest they were carrying though. Looked more like one for carrying gold than supplies._

_Nodoka also took the time to learn magic on reinforcing the body's physical conditioning. Gromph took extra attention to remembering the proper incantations._

"So their wizards could take up the close quarter fighting. Strange. They serve better as long range artillery from what we've seen so far, yet they don't have any trouble with going into melee," _Quenthel noted down._

"Their civilization is not a mixture of magic like our world, Matron." _Gromph was working on memorizing the spells he had learned so far. _"Whereas you draw your power from the divine, and I from the arcane, this world have neither of those sources to draw upon. They seem to have the same source of magic, for either healing or causing destruction. We may know more should we learn the languages they use for casting spells."

"So this same source is what allows them to go into melee?"

"To a degree," _Gromph replied to that. _"You said it yourself, their wizards are more attuned to serve as long range artillery like us. That is because of the Pactio system they created. Their combat partners were originally expected to participate in melee while the wizard focused primarily on distance combat. But this created a problem."

"Partners began targeting wizards."

"Yes. Wizards found themselves standing in front of partners all too often. So it is no great surprise that they'd have spells to reinforce their physical capabilities. We have the same, only diverse."

_It later dawned on them that they had started with addressing the girl as "Nodoka" instead of "Miyazaki." They agreed to keep it a secret for as long as possible._

_It would be fun to see if they could make it last against a mind reader._

* * *

_Quenthel downright laughed when Nodoka had revealed the real name of that bounty hunter holding her captive. She was furious when that beastmaster was trying to strip the girl naked._

_She had a bright smile to herself when Sakurazaki and Nagase came down there to get Nodoka out of there. That same smile vanished when the bounty hunters had prepared that mine for the two._

_Then a familiar face appeared and removed the mine. _"That's Asuna!" _Quenthel exclaimed. _"That implies Springfield is not far off."

_And then he appeared. He was not happy and he looked different than the last time. _"What?" _That was a very flat one said by the matron. And then Springfield bested the whole lot of them in a matter of seconds, than minutes._

"What," _said the archmage this time after the fighting and the noise of fists connecting with bone and skin had calmed down. _

_Then the rest of Ala Alba came down on them on a giant flying... goldfish, as the humans called it. The drow were a bit stunned still over the events that had happened._

_It took a while before one of the two – you decide – simply said, _"What the hell just happened?"

* * *

_The next day, Averruncus appeared again. And he had reinforcements._

_Being slammed by the barrier keeping them close to Nodoka while they were inside that giant... cat ball thing getting away from that Shirabe girl was not fun. It was too fast and it hurt the drow a lot._

_Things got even better when Nodoka was piloting that fish thing while dodging those shockwaves Shirabe produced. _

_Worse still, Shirabe had almost got them, if Inugami hadn't come._

_Now the smart move would be to pull back and regroup, leaving the others out there to fend for themselves for the moment, but nope! Nodoka just had to go where Springfield and Averruncus were and extract his name. That was just sheer brilliant, rushing into a situation she wasn't supposed to be in._

…_she could count herself lucky she was in the company of Springfield – a wizard that looked after his friends. Though the matron was taken aback a little with Springfield's statement he wouldn't let Averruncus lay a finger on Miyazaki._

"He looks ready to kill." _Quenthel seemed pleased with seeing Springfield so angry at someone. _"I like that."

"I thought you hated humans," _Gromph implied of her._

_She sighed in annoyance. _"I hate humans who do not see themselves as something in particular. Those who seek power, I tolerate. Those who have power, I can respect. But those who have the potential to use power and do not actively seek it for their own ends... I cannot begin to say how much I despise them."

_Then Asuna, the Rakan character came with Konoka, surrounding Averruncus, to the extent that he retreated. And then there was another touching scene between Nodoka and Springfield-_

_Wait, touching? Why are they thinking that it was touching?_

_**Enough of the flashbacks already, bring in Asuna!**_

The group of six were practically storming the fortress of whatever dark power lay here. The demons were gone, now came the tyranids and the undead raining down upon them. Hordes of the buggers were everywhere they looked and only one of them had the time of their lives. Three guesses which one. And the first two are automatically wrong.

The two party leaders, Asuna and Saber, led the assault in pretty much a brave manner, both in their separate way. Saber led with her own sword, cutting down enemies and also using her own telekinesis to blow large groups away. Asuna, since her Hama no Tsurugi was not enough here, used her shotgun from the GPS mark II to blow away her targets and she wasn't about to run out of ammunition anytime soon. Whatever the hell that Gestr guy did to her shotgun did wonders.

While not having a "boomstick," Minsc was proving himself to be the warrior he so often bragged about and he somehow had the biggest killscore of the lot. His sword Larry, when not trying to charm Asuna's sword, was the warrior's best friend on the battlefield. Boo was also aiding by pretending that he was in danger and only Minsc could save him. Boy were the fiends in for a surprise when it came to the love the giant had for his miniature giant space hamster.

Aerie, their wizard, had sadly run out of spells and relied heavily on wands, charms, scepters and whatever weapon training she had to stay alive. Her mace was also a contributor. Minsc kept her safe alongside Shakuras the Protoss who held up psychokinetic barriers to keep the fiends at bay from her, but the elven archmage was holding herself up with them.

And as always, Deadpool always found some way to annoy the enemy. How the merc with a mouth pulled that off was a mystery in itself.

"It is no secret at all, good readers!" Deadpool told the empty air again. "Let me tell you how I-" he was interrupted (mercifully, thought Asuna) by a Tyranid Warrior trying to slice him in half. "INTERRUPTING PEOPLE ISN'T VERY NICE!" He yelled as he returned the favor.

"Why did Rufus hire this guy!" Asuna cried out while blasting a handful of skeletons of what she believed to be gith once. "Any other group I'd be comfortable with, but him?"

"The results speak for themselves, Asuna," Saber replied over on her side of the assault. "He is practically immortal and manpower is a scarce resource we have."

"I know, we're using all of it!"

"Plus, the author seems to be getting the hang of writing me!" Deadpool cried while using his guns. "Heck, I might even ask for permanent presence in this fic!"

"NO!" Asuna protested. "You are not getting into this fic, or whatever the hell is going on in your head! I'll file complaints until the author complies!"

"Aw, come on, Asuna. Don't you like me?"

""Like you?" I've been trying to kill you fifteen times since we got here!" She confessed. "Back at the library, the cavern, that canyon gorge..."

"Really?"

"Weren't the slugs I fired at you directly a hint?"

"Oh yeah," He remembered while carving up zombies.

"How the hell does he change weapons so fast?" Saber just had to ask that one. She was stuck with just one weapon, psionics not counting.

"Ah, it's because the author allows it to happen. It's part of me being so awesome as a Memetic Badass-"

"A what?" Shakuras was genuinely confused by that.

"-and the fact that other authors out there are using me as well, that he decided to-" Then a big stone landed on his head and he fell down unconscious. "Ow." Well, almost unconscious.

The tyranids seized this opportunity to rush down his angle. Feeling guilty, Asuna rushed over there and rammed her fist into the first one to come up.

There were a total of thirty in this group. Asuna had done that number before, but these weren't summons, and her artifact wasn't much use here anyway, due to lack of space. The nids rushed at her, seeing her as the more important target, but the redhead was more than capable. Truth was, she could scarcely remember all her martial arts lessons but her body did. She crushed one skull between her kneecap and elbow, followed by being tackled by a nid trying to eat her face, only to be thrown into the ceiling and crack its back against a wedge. The third and fourth tried the same flank, but Asuna had a shotgun and she used it. The spray was enough to take those both out as the body liquids poured out.

Then a fifth drives its long talon right through her armor in the back.

Asuna swung around, snapping off the talon and then broke its neck with a punch. Even though she was bleeding real bad, she was still in the fight, thanks in a major part to the ankh amulet she wore around her neck under the armor collar. If that was to come loose, no doubt she'd be dead three times over by now.

Then a large explosion happened thanks to a fireball and the rest of the bugs were taken out. Asuna was taken by the shockwave and the outer skirts of the blast, flying back and landing hard on the stone floor.

"Are you alright, Asuna?" Aerie asked her. Asuna could barely laugh due to loss of blood.

"Hurts when I speak," she first said after a while between coughs of pain. "and breathe."

"I'll heal you up."

"Weren't you out of spells?" Asuna asked the elf.

"Out of battle spells, my friend," Aerie corrected. "My wands serve me well so far, but I always hold the most vital healing spells back until they are needed."

"Good," Asuna coughed out of herself and lay there while the other three fighters kept up the battle around them. It was hard to breathe. Dragons, brigands, bounty hunters and other magical beasts she could handle, but these tyranids were an opponent on a different level. And the githyanki fought them occasionally?

At least the ankh was keeping her alive. It took a few brief moments but Aerie got her healed up for the final push of the enemy forces.

"Larry, I would like you to meet Evil," Minsc said proudly to his sword.

"Again?" Larry asked.

"Evil, feel free to jump on my sword while you can, I won't be as gentle!"

"Keep the formation," Saber instructed them. "Target the larger creatures among the tyranids."

"That I can do," Asuna said as she activated her Kankahou powers and jumped up into the ceiling above them all. "I should have done this from the start. Adeat." Her artifact sword came out.

"Hama-chan!" Larry cried in joy. There is no explanation as to how he learned the "-chan" honorific in such short time at the time.

Asuna brought her weapon down hard on a floating Tyranid that had an awful similar look to it, killing it instantly. This caused a tremendous shockwave among the other tyranids and caused several of the smaller ones to turn on one another. Some of them went against her. They didn't stand a chance.

Then came the warriors. And they were beset by more gunfire than expected. "Yeah, we go on the offensive now!" Guess-who had gotten back up and was happy to see Asuna leading the front. "I so love it when the author is writing the good stuff! We get to be the big heroes of the scene!"

Not one of them sneezed because they were too pre-occupied at the moment and none of them were willing to point out that they already were the heroes of the scene, author or no author.

Asuna was like a completely different fighter now, using her greatsword to a degree that only masters had the skill to do. It was a joyful sight to see and the other fighters had a burden off their shoulders with her alongside them.

The undead stood little chance, themselves. Aerie's light from her deity shun so bright some of them caught fire. Shakuras watched her back and made certain no enemy made it past him.

Minsc and Boo had a good time, with the latter displaying his moves and the former by... well, being himself. The Rashemen fighter was in his best field of expertise, barring talking to Boo. Only he could understand the little rodent that had been handed to him by Elminster himself.

Saber worked as well as was expected of her. Foregoing special moves in favor of quick strikes that made for a quick death and allowed her to move on to other opponents fast, she racked up a high "kill score" herself from the merc.

And Deadpool claimed that he had been forbidden from doing the soundtrack for this magnificent scene. So he just resorted to shooting everything that wasn't hot (in his point of view) to pieces. Which meant Shakuras and Saber were shot accidentally by him.

This battle dragged on for a few hours, with a few times for pause, regroup and inventory check of what they had left.

It was enough for them to push on. Only just.

_**Damn director's board, forcing me to go back**_

_It was only about five months after the battle at Ostia and the Gravekeeper's Palace, that Nodoka gained the nightmares._

"We can't see them to see what it is that's bothering her," _Quenthel said. It was getting annoying to an extent._

_Still, they had seen some immensely valuable things inside her memories so far. In particular, Jack Rakan's movie and Springfield's own battle against him. Not only were the two drow highly impressed with both their respective power and skill, but the sheer amount of preparation that Springfield had loaded for the battle alone was comparable to the magic skill of Toril's wizards._

_Gromph felt almost... inadequate in comparison at the time but he knew at least he was watching at the power of the son of a powerful wizard hero._

_They almost lost their jaws when they actually learned that his mother was the last Queen of the fallen kingdom they were in. But it did confirm what Nodoka said when she told them that he was a prince._

_Then Kosmo Entelecheia attacked again. The Dynamis fellow was not an ordinary opponent, though Nodoka did surprise not one, not two, but THREE powerful magic users in that instant with her skill. Sure, the other two had seen her practice and learn the incantations, but to see it in use against someone severely more powerful than herself was a different matter. It gave them an idea of how effective reinforcing your body with magic was. Of course, they had done it before but it was more proof to why such spells existed._

_During the assault on the Gravekeeper's Palace, things changed. Most of all, the number of Averruncus there were. Good thing that Springfield showed up when he did after his clash with Dynamis._

_After having collapsed the "Third" Averruncus under a mountain of rubble caused in the battle, and disposing of the other ones like him, things went mostly quiet._

_Except for one occasion when their vampire, McDowell, issued a statement for them to back down and live in peace once Negi was gone and left the academy, not seeing him or Asuna again._

_Miyazaki was the first to refuse that, vowing to practice hard to get to him. From there, the others followed._

_Four months she trained with her magic, taking extra lessons from Ayase, who had become an excellent wizard in her own right and was working to become a full time student in that wizard study city named Ariadne, sometimes taking an all-nighter in order to learn all the spells she could. Two months in, she mastered all the basic ones and moved on to the "Magic Arrows."_

_Two months, when she could barely muster enough to cast Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens, was when the nightmares came to her._

_The drow could only watch as she writhed in her sleep, unable to be calm, always having an unpleasant expression, usually ending with her nearly catapulting up from the bed. And she kept it quiet from the rest._

_A month after that, the githyanki first arrived._

* * *

_A trio of soldiers, in armor designed like the soldiers occupying Menzoberranzan at the moment, stood in front of Nodoka and the academy headmaster after having blocked their other way with a wall of fire. And like the soldiers, these had different color schemes on their armor, being a mashup of various brightful colors. They did have the same kind of weapons, short straight swords and combat rifles._

"_Hmph, you got some weird color coordination, you people," the headmaster said and this seemed to anger one of them._

_He went straight for him, only to have the headmaster show up behind him, having snatched the sword from one of the other two and engage the first one in close quarter combat. Stunned in surprise for a brief instant, the two soldiers went instead for Nodoka._

_The bookworm wasn't going to to give in that quick. She flashed them with a light and got up and as fast as she could, ran for it. One of the soldiers teleported in front of her, but he was not prepared for a missile launched from the old man, knocking him away by a good distance. That gave Nodoka a chance to slip by. The third used agility over teleportation, deliberately choosing a spot between the old man and his partner to jump through to get to her._

"_Hooh," the headmaster noted. "You do not play around much. Allow an old man the same chance, eh?" And then in a few swift strikes, he showed exactly why he has been unchallenged for a long time. The soldier fell down to the ground but not dead, for the headmaster had used the blunt side of the sword to strike the soldier._

_Nodoka avoided roughly the other soldier and held out from his grabbings until the headmaster stepped in and promptly thwarted him, making him fly._

_He did not notice the third directing an assault rifle barrel in his direction until the bullets started flying._

_Fortunately, somehow, a shield went up between him and the bullets, just in time for saving him from becoming human mincemeat._

_The drow noted that Nodoka had put it up and she wasn't willing to let them kill the headmaster just like that. But in that they were soldiers, it meant that there was likely a fourth one hiding out there who was the mage. To an extent, this was a good tactic pulled off by the soldiers. Except that they didn't have enough troops for this._

_The soldier with the rifle at the ready, got smacked on the head by the other. They didn't speak to one another, but got their act together and charged together. That meant orders were to take prisoners, not to kill._

_The third guy got up and he didn't seem glad at all beneath his helmet. The dean and the girl got back together and prepared to hold them back as best they could._

"_Miyazaki, you do know how to fight in close quarters, right?" he asked her._

"_Heh? Um, well... I really, don't, but... I mean, I was going to learn someday, it just..."_

_The soldiers attacked at that moment and take a quick guess at who made a facepalm again. But honestly, it should not have been a surprise for them._

_The headmaster moved fast to try and engage all three of them, whilst Nodoka was to get away from there to get to Springfield. Things don't always go as we wish them to, as one of the two from one side went straight for her instead._

_Nodoka rather stood her ground and released another flash of light with her wand, blinding them, and then moved from her current spot. The headmaster took in the third in his engagement of the soldiers, forcing him to be trapped by the old man. The bookworm held out her wand and started chanting a combat to target the soldiers with magic arrows._

_She fired off three, one for each of them, and at least one hit its target unprepared. The others had shields or barriers up around themselves but didn't pay attention to her, thanks to the headmaster's skills keeping them in check._

_Still, they had a numerical advantage on him and he was an old man. Time played the cards on its own._

_That's when the second guy was caught in something invisible._

"_Oyya, you are not half-assed with the skill you got," the familiar voice of McDowell said to the third, who merely stared at the little vampire girl. "Had she been alone, you might've pulled it off. However, I don't really like it when small fries like you intrude, so... since there are three of you, I think that's an invitation," she continued as she released the guy from her strings. "for me to join in."_

"_Hiii!" Nodoka started realizing the implications of what that meant. The stuff of nightmares, that was._

_Fortunately, the soldier was a lot smarter than that. He rallied his two squadmates and then they got the heck outta there. It took a few moments before others were heard as well, pulling back from other areas._

"_Hahaha, I still got it," said McDowell._

"_Hooh, you did take your time, Evangeline," the headmaster said. "Or were you up there all along?"_

"_Pft, nah I was on my way. Fireballs are a bit hard to miss in both magical presence and visual effects," she replied to him. "Those small fries have learned their lesson. They won't be coming back. Still, I can't shake off that that wasn't the only attempt. They got a boss somewhere and he's calling the shots. Probably told them to retreat in the first place."_

"_But what for?" Nodoka asked._

"_Isn't it obvious?" the vampire told her. "They were after you. Don't why they'd bother, but it seemed that way."_

_A few moments later, Springfield and Asuna came with their respective groups on the scene, looking battle-weary._

_**That same night, they saw Fashtar.**_

* * *

_Some weeks later, Nodoka had gathered the courage to escape from that research facility as it was called. And she had a small decent group to go with her; the Hinagiku girl (the drow suspected that she were to play a vital role), that Iyanna woman, the githzerai and two more; a lizard humanoid – that was way too bulky than a normal one – and a small stocky blue humanoid with four fingers on each hand instead of five. And he had goat legs._

"Okay, so a conversation with the githzerai and she decides to escape," _Quenthel noted. _"This is doomed from the start. It explains how she ended up here in the first place with us. It failed. At some point, this plan backfired on her, big time."

"Let us see exactly where, though." _Gromph was watching them with curiosity._

_Nodoka had conducted a plan of escape based on observation alone. That didn't sound promising for a start but she had her artifact with her and that was good. The guards had different shifts, switching areas constantly, meaning that while one area could be guarded at one point, it wouldn't be the next shift._

"Who thought that one up?" _Gromph had to ask that one._

_The idea was simple: Everyone in the facility knew that the area that had at least one guard would be considered important. Therefore, if the guards were to switch places, then this important thing they were supposedly guarding was on the move to maintain its safety so that no one would expect it to be in the same place. The fact that there were force fields and blast doors to keep the guests inside the facility was also a boost. Whoever thought of this place was smart. The air-vents were too narrow for anyone, motion detectors signaled someone's movement, and the guards walked in pairs with each other._

_Nodoka's plan exploited just that._

_First, after making sure that there were no guards about, she and Hinagiku went first, walking in the same pace as the guards usually do to fool the motion detector. The security didn't go as far as planting tracers on the prisoners, so it was easy to fool it. After they had finished the corridor, Iyanna and the githzerai went through the same thing. And so forth with the third duo._

_A guard patrol swiftly taken care of later, they knew where to go to get to the space port. Easy enough, hijack a spaceship in dock, find an FTL gate and get away from the solar system before anyone was any wiser._

_Of course, there just had to be one guard on the way out to the space port. "I can handle this one," Hinagiku said and went ahead of them, creeping along the wall. She managed to get behind the guard, reached out with her fingers and... pinched him by the neck._

"_What are you doing?" the guard asked immediately upon touch. Everyone froze as Hinagiku didn't know what to do next._

"_The, uh... Vulcan neck pinch?" she replied nervously and three observers made a facepalm. Again, in two cases._

"_Uh... I wouldn't know about Vulcan or whatever, but a neckpinch..." the guard said without turning around to see her. "you got it too high. Try lower, where the shoulder meets the neck." He even pointed at the place._

"_You mean like, there?" Hinagiku pinched there instead._

_Then the guard suddenly realized just how stupid he had been. "Oh." Then he fell over unconscious._

"_Thank you," she said politely before gesturing for them that the coast was clear._

"_I can't believe that worked," said Nodoka._

"_I can't believe he gave you directions," the lizardman deadpanned._

"_Me too, so we're even," Hinagiku said._

"_Me three," said Iyanna._

"Us five," _said Quenthel floating beside them._

_Some minutes later, they reached the spaceport and they were in luck._

_The _INEF Journeyman _was docked, a frigate with heavy guns and FTL drives, colored white and maroon. "Yes! We can get out of here!" The Iyanna woman was ecstatic about getting away from there. She had grown in this damn place._

"_Come on, let's go already!" The lizard had gotten up to the airlock door of the ship and tried to get it open. "I'll pilot this thing and then we can-" he stopped abruptly when he got the door open and then was thrown back swiftly into a wall._

_The one person they feared had been expecting them._

"_You escapees always come here, looking for a ship." General Cireka was not in a good mood due to her tone. "Be glad that the guards are not here this time, otherwise you would have more bruised injuries than you'd care to know."_

"_Somehow I prefer that to you," the blue goatman said while taking a few steps back._

"_I bet you would, tau." Cireka did not have any weapons or the like on her, but she didn't need to. They knew that she had psionic powers and she knew exactly how to use them. "Now whose idea, praytell, was it to try and escape from my watch?" She eyed the githzerai, then the lizard. "Perhaps you, Iyanna. You never liked it here and you always showed it. Perhaps it is time that I gave you another disciplinary lesson."_

_Nodoka all of a sudden placed herself between Iyanna and Cireka and the githyanki woman looked at her. "Oh? It was you who planned this? That was unexpected of the little shy human girl."_

"_You said it yourself," Nodoka reminded her. "We humans were the cream of this place. Wouldn't you find it unsurprising that a human would try this?"_

_Cireka looked wondering for a minute before setting her eyes on the girl, and Nodoka shuddered under the pressure. "That's an old bluff you humans deploy. Humans proclaim themselves more special than other races, more right than others. Yet it is always the same thing; not possessing any unique talents, no better than vermin, more like bugs in the face of true power and you, little girl, are pretty much the representative of them!" With the final statement, she charged against the girl and..._

_..missed her and went straight forward. "Huh?" the githyanki woman stopped herself and looked back. Nodoka had stepped aside from her charge._

"_I have to be a bit honest, I'm starting to dislike it when people just look down on me and think I'm nothing," the bookworm girl told her. "And I'm not entirely powerless. Even you recognized me as a mage."_

_Cireka did not look too pleased and merely stared at Nodoka, whom felt that pressure even more than before. "Even so, your power cannot even compare to a fraction of mine."_

_Then she felt a whack on the back of her head, which smashed her concentration. "Hey, don't pick on her!" Hinagiku scolded the general as if she was some kind of bully._

_Uh... wrong thinking there, Hina._

_Cireka grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up. "You'll pay for that."_

"_No," she said in retaliation before the githyanki felt a hand on her right side. And then Nodoka sent her flying straight into the wall of the port, whereupon impact, caused a large container crate to come down on the general._

_The other prisoners looked mortified at the sight. "Let's... get the hell out of here while we can!" the githzerai cried._

"_Is she dead?" Hina asked looking at the container._

"_Hell, no." The lizard got up fast and marched straight over into the _Journeyman_. "That woman has survived far worse than some container. And when she gets out of there, she'll be more than simply pissed off."_

"_Wait, hold on!" The tau interrupted their thought of escape. "They must have failsaves to prevent full escape from here. Even then, there could be guns nearby to shoot us down. We'd be dead before we even reach a spacebridge."_

"And they say there is something wrong with being paranoid," _Gromph remarked, being probably the most paranoid male in the whole city, surely only bested by the Spider-Mage._

"_I'll stay." the voice caught most of them by surprise. "I'll stay here and ensure they don't get the chance of activating the guns," Hinagiku told them. "The rest of you get aboard and head for safety."_

"_And go where?" the githzerai questioned. "We don't have any charts."_

"_No time to argue, just go!" the human yelled at them. Most were reluctant to get aboard the ship, Nodoka included, but they did eventually._

_The drow failed to see where the plan had failed. So far, nearly everything had gone their way, save for that Cireka had intercepted them, and that Hinagiku was choosing to stay behind._

_The next few things that happened explained the whole damn backfire. It wasn't a backfire._

_Nodoka ripped off her Ala Alba badge and gave it to Iyanna. "What? Nodoka?"_

"_Get to Earth," was all Nodoka told her before opening the airlock door again. "He'll help."_

"_Wait, wait, wait." Iyanna clambered to follow the bookworm again, but the human had set the airlock to close after her. "Who's going to help?"_

_Nodoka jumped out of the ship as it was starting to leave the hangar, landing not as good as she had hoped for, behind Hinagiku, but without anything broken at least. "Not a smart thing to do..."_

"_Nodoka?" the pink haired girl asked softly. "What are you doing! You started the whole thing! Why did you come back!"_

_The container creaked and moved, alerting them both before Nodoka could answer that. It took its time though long enough for her to actually answer the question._

"_I just... didn't think it would be fair to leave you behind," she first told the fighting girl. "You're great and all, but I don't think you could tackle their security force on your own. Besides..." She was distraught on how to say it. "We... did make a pinkie promise that we'd go home together, didn't we?"_

_Hina kept quiet there for a beat. The drow watching the two, of course, were witnesses to the whole thing. Apparently, making a promise via your pinky fingers intertwined was a big thing for friends._

_Then the container broke open and out stepped a bruised and mad Cireka, just as the ship left. "You just missed your flight."_

"_There wouldn't be one if we didn't stay," Hina replied back and assumed her Kendo position. Nodoka kept quiet and brought her artifact to scan Cireka. The githyanki, on the other hand, was not too pleased with that the two humans stayed behind._

"_...You two can consider yourself lucky that I am under strict orders not to kill anybody at our facility. But you are going to wish that I was allowed to, for what I'm about to do to you."_

_Well, you get the picture of what happened._

* * *

It eventually all boiled down to the start of the civil war with the girl as leader of a rebellion she didn't want to begin with.

But the spell had ended and now the two leaders of the drow city could retire and formulate a strategy for the girl's hometown. A meeting with the others was in order first.

Shakti Hunzrin, Kimmuriel Oblodra, the Spider Mage, general Osyrimon and his main sorcerer, Ral, along with the priestesses and wizards of Baenre were gathered in front of the first matron and the Archmage as the latter carefully explained his plan on how to correct the mistake made and on how to infiltrate the town.

Mahora was a small city by Earth's standards, but 70 000 inhabitants outnumbered the whole of Menzoberranzan by miles with its measly 32 000 inhabitants. Mahora's number also included the 30 000 student number in the Mahora academy. Assuming that if one in a million was a mage among Earth's population, there would only be 70 mages there if there were some rules imposed on them about where to live.

There weren't. Mahora Academy would certainly house a devastating number of mages because of its status as the capital for a mage province. There could be up to be a hundred times more than the expected number. Not to mention it housed several powerful combat mages and long range artillery. At least three names stood out more than the rest: Takahata, Evangeline McDowell, Negi Springfield. Since Nodoka's memories could be seen as accurate, at least Asuna, the most dangerous anti-wizard fighter was not there, but there were others that counted too.

The idea was but a simple in-and-out infiltration mission for them to learn and obtain vital spellbooks to make the training for Nodoka's role in the civil war a proper success. Although Lolth was not in favor of these sorts of events of cooperation, she did frown upon that she was losing ground, especially to non-drow.

Of course, there needed to be some additional reinforcements to the initial plan, were it not to go as ideal. And that was where Oblodra and the githyanki came in.

Once they were informed, Quenthel turned to both Hunzrin and the Spider Mage. "You two, you have permission to take Miyazaki to this pool of healing. Alert us with a Sending once you have been successful of the mission. Take care to make sure that she gets back safely here. Do you understand?"

Shakti bowed first. "Yes, of course, Matron Baenre. We shall take good care to ensure her safety above all else."

"Anyone who interferes with us, shall regret it deeply," said the Spider Mage, his face hidden beneath a faceless grey cloth mask.

"I'll assign a squad of my own troops to accompany you as well," Osyrimon told them. "This is one of our interests here we are discussing."

"The rest of us will move as soon as we hear of good news," Quenthel informed them. "This is not a simple infiltration. We need the best equipment for this." The Baenre nobles nodded to her. "And whilst we're away, Noori shall assume the position of Archmage until our return."

Noori was a cousin to the ruling siblings and a wizard. She had met Miyazaki before and focused mostly on divinations as well. But she understood enough of magic to take the position. Being Archmage had previously gone to Gromph's first cousin Nauzhror, but the fat abjuration wizard was needed for this.

A drow soldier came along their way and made a report. Apparently several of the matrons had scried on this meeting and, in fairness of working together, requested to allow a handful of their own troops to come along. Mizzrym, Duskryn, Del'Armgo, and Tuin'Tarl were the most prominent in lending their aid. Xorlarrin, the fifth house excused itself in claiming that they would defend the city from the githyanki should the first mission be a failure.

Others were intrigued but stayed out of it for fear of retribution. Or generally because they normally didn't care. But right now, the whole of Menzoberranzan was in danger. Most sent their troops to key locations, namely the palace of Hunzrin and the Citadel of Xorlarrin.

Now, came the crucial steps.

* * *

The next cycle, after a long sleep, Nodoka sat rather comfortable aboard a driftdisc as it had been called, floating across the rough surface of the city. Quenthel had arranged it for her and all she had been told was that someone had found a way to make her better.

At this point, she'd take anything to get her eyesight back.

She met Shakti again (sort of) from the sausage stand and someone else who was a more friendly wizard than her mentor. Introductions were made and brief instructions had been made. Gromph was nowhere to be heard of and neither was Quenthel.

The human girl couldn't see anything but she felt and heard a lot going on around her. Her driftdisc didn't follow her own commands (not that she knew how to use it) but it went softly about its business.

Then she felt the strong sensation of a loud hum going on and she felt her bones vibrate all over herself and her stomach churned inside her.

"What?" She got out meekly from herself, feeling a bit sick from what just happened.

"Hello, it's me again," the familiar voice of the medical officer from before said next to her right side. "How do you feel?"

"Not well," she told him. "What just happened?"

"We went through a groundbridge for instantaneous travel," he said. "Think of it like a... portal."

"FTL portal. Useful..." she said meekly. "Could do better with one's personal condition."

"Heh, everybody gets like that the first time. Surprised you haven't thrown up."

"Not my first time," was her reply to that. "Where are we going?"

"Someplace that can-"

"Restore my eyes, I know that." She felt bad about interrupting him there but it didn't answer her question.

Then she heard Shakti tell her, "We're going to the surface, Miyazaki. We, uh... have to go up because it's where you can get better."

"It also means we have to go through another bridge. We don't have the time for a normal route," the medic said and she heard him wander off.

It was now that she heard a lot of hustling about around in the place she was in at the moment. She heard scores of people moving about, moving things made of metal, plastic or tough clothing like armor. They were moving weapons of various kinds, if only she could figure out what.

A clang signified at least one weapon type involved: swords. It made her wonder if she was at an armory of sorts or-

she heard a familiar voice in the distance. She heard Quenthel speak to someone. She heard the voice but not the words. Soon enough after a long while, a full group had gathered around her from what she could hear.

"Alright, troops, you have your orders," a new voice cut in. This one carried a tone of authority over them. "Get there, protect the girl and get back. Avoid the local patrols and villages. I'd like to avoid you guys getting into trouble with the authorities.

"Open the Groundbridge!" the order carried out to someone by a control panel by the sound of of it.

"It'll be a short walk," Shakti said once the bridge opened up and the loud hum sounded across the cavern. "You'll like the fresh air, I bet."

The portal felt more intense this time but she dealed with it for the moment...

...because when they exited, she felt the coolness of a soft spring breeze on her face and Nodoka let out a sigh of great relief she didn't know she withheld.

Several others around her took a deep sniff of the air as well, exhaling goodness from themselves. "Very well, Shakti. You know the route. Can you find the way to the pool from here?"

A few seconds later, "Yes, I know that landmark to the northeast. We're only about three hours away from the pool. This way."

"Alright, let's move, everybody. Time's a wasting, we gotta go!" Hustle hustle, everybody in the area with their feet on the ground got moving and some summons were made. The driftdisc followed the group of soldiers led by the drow priestess as the warmth of a dawning sun swept down on Nodoka's face.

_**Continued in part 2...**_

_K: What? I need to put in Fashtar's group, too? Frickin- Fine, but only as a comedy for these parts._

"Okay, let me get this whole thing straight," Huelun said softly as they stood in front of an empty red brick road that narrowed down a forest. "The only way to reach the magic portal that could get us into the plane of Celestia is to go down this road which is blessed by a god of chaos, humor and random events occurring?"

"That's about the gist of it, yes," their githyanki leader said softly.

"And we cannot use the truck on this one?" Nailbrain asked him.

"No, the road is too narrow for the truck." Fashtar did look nervous about going down the road though. "And yes, I have tried flying over the forest, but apparently, you get random images in your head which will disturb your concentration."

"For real?"

"I think I may have contracted a magical sex-disease in the process, too." To that statement, the others took a step back away from Fashtar. "Hey, those are not contagious. Besides, sex-diseases are only contracted through intercourse. But this is a god of humor and chaos we're dealing with here. The odds of something like that happening with him is, what, a hundred percentage when he's focused on something."

"So... we're walking," Jarlaxle pondered over the options. "Well, since we came here anyway, we should go forth and- oh look, there's a sign."

"What does it say?" Thorgar walked over and had a look. "Warning: Random Accidents Ahead."

"Must be from the god," Gorim noted.

"Yeah, safety first. At least now we'll know stuff will happen to us." Fashtar took a sigh. "Come on. If we're lucky, only minor stuff will happen to us."

_A bit up the road..._

"RAGGEDY ANN SCARES ME!"

**_Notes will be brought up at the end of the final_ _part._**


	51. Expeditions, part 2

**Disclaimer**: Mahou Sensei Negima, Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha, Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple, Mass Effect (Technology) and (possible) cameo characters are created and owned by their respective creators, not me. I write this for entertainment for the masses and to improve myself.

_**Part 2: Volunteering, Healing, Arrival**_

"Mumble, mumble, grumble, mumble... "let's all go to the Underdark," you said. "We can score some serious money down here," you promised..." Their wizard was not happy as they wandered down there. "Well, guess what? A month stuck down here and we have to scrape the walls for fungi and watch our backs at water holes for food and what do we have to show for it? A handful of gold coins and a duergar we had to kill who was rambling on about some great danger down here."

"Huh, I figured you would like being underground, Ela," Delvian said casually and she turned on the spot to face him.

"Like being underground, huh?" She repeated. "I'm Half-drow, as in enemy number one to the dark elves down here. My mother went rogue and she escaped from this place. I am not at home down here, Delvian."

Their other member had to hide a smile as they went on.

Ela had grown into quite a capable wizard, taught under one of the finest minds in Silverymoon after her recommendation by master Fashtar. She had been so busy with her study that she had neglected her own health to a small extent, but some jogging in the fields outside the walls seemed to work. She was still going to her mentor, but she managed to convince her that going together with a group would work wonders with her training.

And then she ran into Delvian and Sylbie.

Delvian was a Warrior-Priest of Tempus. The clean shaven man was not the most boisterous of fighters but he was still pretty devastating with that big hammer of his. Walking around in half-plate armor though, didn't help him much in sneaking about, but the Tempus followers weren't so big on sneaking to begin with.

Sylbie, or Sylbiavari Highroc, was the one who covered that angle. An excellent thief, or as some said, assassin, the wood elven woman was considerably older than Ela. Her sense of dressing could do with a little boost, though. Dressing in white robes while being in the Underdark didn't seem as a good idea. It was probably magical for all the half-drow girl knew. She never did bother with scanning either of them for magical items, that would just be rude.

"Come now, you two," Sylbie spoke up. "We can't be far from an exit that must be around somewhere down here."

"A month we've been down here and we've been unsuccessful so far, Sylbie," Ela replied.

"Even so, it doesn't hurt to have a positive outlook on things." The words were true and the wizard smiled at the thief to show she agreed.

Ela spoke up again, "It's just that... I'm scared. I know I'm not from this area, but if the drow found out that I'm half-drow, who knows what they would do to me. You two would have the fortune of a quick death, but not me. My mother betrayed her people, ran away with a human slave to the surface, and she caused a big commotion. It was not fun growing up knowing that you could expect a drow hunting party arriving in town, looking for you."

"Understood," said Delvian. "Having to live in fear is one thing, but it is another to let it be your master."

"That's why my first mentor sent me to Greenwood's. So that when I finally meet an excursion of them looking for me, I'd be ready."

Delvian laughed loudly. "Good. And you have us with you as well. Together we could take on anything short of a dragon."

"Or a wizard above my own level..." Ela muttered.

Rapid sounds caught their attention all of a sudden. The noises came in highly rapid succession at a rate they haven't heard before, it was loud and what's more...

There was a lot of them.

"What?" Ela asked softly.

"It came from over there," Sylbie whispered and went first in the direction of the noise. Naturally, Ela covered the rear after Delvian went after the thief.

The noises became louder, so it was an indication that they were getting closer. It wasn't what they had first expected.

"Okay..."

In a large faezress-free cavern, they saw scores, definitely thousands of soldiers rushing about down in numbers, preparing their strange weapons and flying vehicles in a design totally different from the skyships they have seen up on the surface. Nearly everything was completely different in design, save from swords (which they spotted); weapons, armor, transport vehicles, places of comfort.

Only Delvian couldn't see fully what they were. A few soldiers with their helmets off were confirmed as githyanki, but they didn't seem like any they had seen before. Everyone wore different colors on their armor, with handful of them in some groups had matching color patterns. They did also spot a fair number of drow soldiers in their mail armor and black cloaks and their riding lizards.

The noises came from a thick concentrated line of githyanki soldiers using long, almost staff-like weapons made of metal and they went off like wands against targets. Their aim was most impressive as 1 out of 10 missed on a ratio of 1 shot out of 20.

Others, a large collection of them directed by a trio of what seemed like officers to the three adventurers, were constructing a rather large archway, meaning they were building a portal to use.

This was not a good situation.

"Too many of them to fight," Ela said. "Way too many."

"Hey, I know this cavern. We're in Dead Dragon Gorge," said Sylbie. "From here, we could hijack a portal and get back to the surface."

"Uh, Sylbie? I don't think we can get down there without getting spotted." Ela was getting down again. "Plus, Siregar was the best of us at conjurations in school..."

"You're an universalist who had the second highest scores upon graduation," Delvian pointed out. "Don't tell us you didn't skip on your grades and graduated because of talent."

"What'd you say! I'd kill people for insults like that!"

Then their area lit up brightly and not one of the three could bear themselves into turning around to have a look.

"Sylbie," Delvian said quietly for once.

"Yes?"

"Is it possible that there could be people out there better at the art of stealth than you?"

"Only if they could cheat," the elven woman conceded to the warrior-priest.

"I also think I forgot to set up the Alarm for us again," Ela admitted.

"Drop your weapons and raise your hands above your heads," a voice called to them. All three of them did so and Ela just blurted out of herself, very quickly,

"I was a student of Fashtar at Greenwood's Academy for Wizards! He awarded me personally with my badge of honor at graduation day!"

There was a small beat of silence in the little space before someone spoke up again, "I think the general would like to see you, then."

* * *

Some twenty minutes later, the three of them were sitting by a large desk speckled with maps, files and a glowing illusion of a drow city underneath the files. They were under armed guard by at least some eight soldiers with those weapons, circling the room of the command building they were in, whilst they were waiting for the verdict of the one in charge.

"Let's see..." General Osyrimon in his white and blue armor and the greatsword on the back said as he looked up a file. "Elacia Arcurio Melati Belmere-Wysiwyg. Wizard apprentice, graduate of Greenwood's. Yaddah, yaddah, yaddah... oh, you do know Fashtar."

"That's what I said," Ela spoke out of turn, then added for respect, "Sir."

"We just needed the confirmation, miss. Lord Fashtar has been out of range recently-"

"_This is the worst road in history!"_

"_Don't say that! We'll get trampled again!"_

"_Oh look, a puppy. Hello, little puppy- Oh my god, a Girallion!"_

"_ROOOOAAAAAR!"_

"so we had to contact Greenwood's and ask for your name there, instead. We apologize for the inconvenience. We've all just been on edge lately. You're free to go and use one of the portals around here to get to where you live."

"Oh, thank you, sir," Ela said. Though before they could leave, a new feminine, almost seductive voice cut in.

"Or..." they saw a rather beautiful drow female, marked out as a matron in her mithril mail armor underneath a, rarely seen, white modest dress and a whip at her hip (Again?). "You might consider a little offer."

"Uh oh," Ela muttered under her breath. "Matron. This is not good."

"We intend to go on an excursion to a most recently discovered place. You wouldn't find it normally via travel of the planes of existence, so this is a relatively good chance for you to earn some... valuable treasures," the matron continued.

"Matron Baenre," Osyrimon spoke up. "I voice my opposition here. These three adventurers have been lost down here for weeks and only wish to return to the surface. It would do well to just send them back to wherever they came from."

"At the very least let me explain what I am proposing to them, general." Baenre seemed... awfully polite. And it was creepy. Maybe it was the same reason she was wearing white. "This is essentially a once in a lifetime offer. You take up the job as... companions with us on this and you can get as much gold as you could carry with you so you can avoid having to get down here again."

"Uh... and um.. what exactly are we going to do, once we're there and all?" Ela asked her, being identified as the wizard. "Call me a bit paranoid and all, but I'm starting to think you are mounting up for conquest."

"No, no. We are not going there for conquest and loot, Wysiwyg." Baenre had reverted back from the awfully polite lady to the evil queen-bitch in white – stockings? Well, at least she was being a bitch. "We are simply going there for knowledge. Since you are a wizard yourself, could you just simply imagine all that new, undiscovered, just-lying-and-waiting-for-you kind of magic that is easy to learn and use there, compared to what Greenwood's has taught you?"

"Uhh... I guess, I could, but... wait, undiscovered magic?" Ela had always been familiar with the complicated but sufficient magic system that while not efficient in usage for a week, resulted in a high increase of intelligent wizards. "How can it be new magic compared to what we already have?"

"You may see when we get there," was all Baenre replied in turn.

"May we hold a private conversation regarding this?" Delvian asked them. "We need to."

"Yes, you may huddle up and whisper," Osyrimon said to them and then ordered one of his men to instruct a mage to gather his supplies at a portal.

It took the adventurers a roughly ten minutes before they agreed. The elves were dubious and suspicious of the drow's cooperation and both of them were in a sense justified: Drow tended to kill surface elves on sight or bring them down to their cities for torture. Half-drow had it a little bit lighter than that, but that usually depends on the drow _not_ figuring out what your other half is. And they're very good at that.

They weren't given any new equipment or the like, the drow felt they had more than enough on them with what they got. At least the gith were kind enough to give Ela some more wands and give Delvian a new helmet.

But everybody was just preparing and not actually going anywhere through that new portal which was recently completed. Since they were on a new payroll at the moment, they just had to do what the rest of them did.

Wait. For something that was a signal.

_**Speaking of which...**_

The whole party moved in silence as best they could. The mixture of drow and githyanki was probably not a welcome sight in the lands above the Underdark and the driftdisc with the human girl sitting on it was not helping either.

No doubt some playing children in the woods had already seen them heading towards the spot Hunzrin claimed could fix the blind girl. Still, twelve githyanki soldiers armed with assault rifles and twenty drow soldiers, not to mention a very powerful wizard and a priestess would be more than a match for any regiment they'd send against them.

"Miss Hunzrin, I must ask," said the medic, who had examined Nodoka. She'd recognized the voice easily. "What is it about this pool that makes you so certain?"

Shakti, remaining cool during the few hours they had been walking, replied bluntly. "The pool is blessed by the goddess Eldath." A few of them stopped. "Oh, don't be so alarmed. Eldath's followers cannot harm us and in turn, we shall not harm them as long as we can heal Miyazaki."

That was true. Eldath was a minor goddess of healing and peace, so her followers were pacifists. That wasn't what had alarmed them. It was her connection.

Despite her opposing of what he stands for and him seeing her as naïve, the goddess Eldath was under the personal protection of the war god Tempus. He had the largest amount of followers anywhere, and everyone who had drawn a sword or nocked an arrow had fought both with and against followers of Tempus.

The war god had made it clear that Eldath's followers were not to be harmed under any circumstances, for he understood the true value of peace. Any one who had openly attacked her people had received a swift and brutal retribution from _his_ people.

So it was perfectly understandable that they'd be nervous.

"You could have mentioned that earlier," said the medic.

"It doesn't matter," Nodoka said, really not interested in what was going on. "I just want to see again."

They agreed with that and just kept on going in silence.

"Here we are," Shakti said after about half an hour after the talk and the group felt a very potent surge of magic inflict itself upon them. "I neglected to tell you about the Sanctuary aura around the pool as well, didn't I?"

"It doesn't matter," the medic replied. "But this should work in our favor, too. No one would dare try to attack us here."

"They would," Shakti told him. "And I will just blow them away should they try it."

The first meeting with the pacifists went so-so once they had announced their intentions. The old druid who was chief in charge of watching the pool had originally intended to pack up and leave it behind but the githyanki priest of Hannahanna persuaded him otherwise to stay and watch the pool as they had always done.

They did ask for privacy when Nodoka was brought before the pool. The chief druid stayed long enough to explain how the healing process worked.

Yaddah, yaddah,yaddah... We can all see where this is going.

Polite as ever and very careful, someone was undressing Nodoka gently to not alarm her. Blind people were easy to frighten and she had been through too much already. Whoever was undressing her, though, did get slapped away when she was reduced to her underwear.

She took those off herself and was then led off the disc into the pool. "I have to keep my eyes open for this to work?" she asked for confirmation.

"Yes, otherwise it won't work," was the answer the druid told her.

"And I can't hold my breath?"

"..All that is required of you is to have faith in that the Goddess of Singing Waters will heal you." And then he spoke no more.

Nodoka was first reluctant to dip her head in but after taking a deep breath and not holding it in, she submerged herself in the water and let her thoughts go free.

_For ten years, I haven't seen any of my friends except in my dreams. I admit, making new friends in a completely different school from Mahora wasn't bad at all, but that was just it. It wasn't Mahora. I didn't have any of my friends there. And Negi-sensei wasn't there._

_I can't say it wasn't fun, just... lonely. And now I've gone blind. It feels just awful. If this does not work, I won't be able to see for the rest of my life. I won't be able to see the looks on my friends' faces when I meet them again. Negi-sensei's smile is just... I can't go back with being blind._

_Many would say that being blind isn't so bad as it's made up to be really, but I refuse to have blindness as my fault. I just can't accept it. I won't accept it. Am I selfish for this?_

_No. I am not selfish. I am not doing this for myself. I go through this for my friends. I go through this because I am not a pushover person. I do this for the fact that they would be sad should they learn of this._

_Eldath, I do this for love._

Then her whole world lit up.

The next thing everybody knew, the pool shone like crazy and then Miyazaki burst out of the water, gasping for air and unintentionally showing what goods she had. None were paying attention to the sight of that, because the medic had already walked up and focused on her eyesight.

"Follow the light?" She asked when he had asked how she felt. He merely chuckled and lit up the torch for her. She followed it perfectly.

"Light test decent enough," he concluded. "Now, is there something else?"

"Yes, actually," Nodoka said. "Will somebody quit staring at me and get me some clothes for me to wear! And not the drow style of clothing, either. I can tell the difference."

Much to hilarity's sake and their relief, nearly everyone took it as a sign that her sight was restored completely and some started celebrating early. One of them did get her clothes out for her.

Shakti walked away a small distance and against the still rising sun, she raised her arms and spoke softly.

_**Around that time**_

Gromph wasn't paying much attention to his newly given equipment for this excursions and focused more on what he was going to use for certain once he was there.

Springfield may be a boy to the humans, but as a mage, the drow could scarcely imagine a more dangerous opponent. Gromph did have spells that could damage his Magia Erebea transmutation, but he needed to have the time to cast them. And even then, he had no definitive proof that the spells capable of doing so would have great effect.

Of the spells he knew, several could help;

1. The basic magic missile: while similar to their sagitta magicka which Springfield had mastered, Baenre's own could at least hurt transparent figures like ghosts. With fortune, that could mean the human's lightning form.

2. Dispel Magic: The paradox spell. Magic that neglected the use of other magic. Gromph was well aware of this potency and was hoping that his knowledge of abjuration would be enough.

3. Anything that rendered Springfield immovable. The human mage specialized in mobility and firepower, not defense of himself. The drow sadly, had chosen to remove the primary magic school that allowed the pause of maneuverability so he would be forced to improvise and be creative.

4. Necromancy. If there was at least one school Miyazaki's world did not practice, it would be the art of life energy. Healing existed, but that was a school of its own. Gromph on the other hand, was a master of the dark manipulation of stealing life force while increasing his own. Many had fallen to him because of it. Save one, who had been even better.

There were many more spells and wands he could use, but he couldn't pick them all and expect to come out on top. Springfield had powerful allies beside him: Ayase, Sakurazaki, Nagase, Hasegawa. He didn't have a full idea on how Hasegawa could be a threat to him but-

"_Mission successful. Miyazaki can see. Long journey back to Menzoberranzan. Will proceed with caution. Will attempt to find portal to take us back. Your reply?"_

Hunzrin's words came to him in a flash. The mission had been a success for them and Miyazaki could see again. He had of course, been keeping an eye on them for some time to make sure they weren't attacked.

If he was relieved, he certainly didn't show it with so many about. His sister Matron Quenthel came by and stopped by him, having recognized the call of a Sending. He gestured for her to be quiet while he figured out a reply to Hunzrin.

Several came to his mind to instruct them to come back as fast as possible, but there was cause to let them take the slow time coming back.

He made his decision.

"Good. No need to find a portal. Let Miyazaki enjoy time on the surface while up there. Find High Forest cave for return." He pondered on his two remaining words to say, but the words best suitably were for Miyazaki rather than Hunzrin. Hopefully she would understand who they were for. "Take care."

The spell ended for him there. "Success?" Quenthel asked him now that he had finished.

"Success. We can move out," he replied and gathered the equipment he was to have: A long coat with inner pockets filled to the brim and sockets packed with wands almost everywhere. There were even a pair inside the sleeves of the coat. Underneath his newly acquired coat, there was a small harness made of stiff and strong fibers. Kevlar, the githyanki had called them. There were several other pieces of clothing for him to wear and it all gave off a radiation of magic to him.

Several members of the expedition gathered around him. Quenthel, his first cousin Nauzhror, his nephew Prath (not Quenthel's), the Duskryn commander and daughter to the Matron, Ariel Duskryn, a rare albino of the drow, Kimmuriel Oblodra and his chosen retinue Valas Hune, the three recently hired adventurers from the surface, and the githyanki general Osyrimon.

"We leave at once," he told them.

"Portal's all ready for you, my lord," a soldier called for him as he walked up to it.

Portals were a bit tricky. He could activate it and all, but usually it required a second one on the other side. Fortunately, he had a blind spot where he could activate it safely.

Gromph spoke the carefully selected words and directed his gathered magic surge toward the portal and when he was done, it responded. The portal swirled wide open for him and he saw an empty space underground for them all to arrive in.

Someone else placed themselves beside him and assumed his same pose, taking control of the portal. He saw him as the sorcerer Ral who nodded for him to go first into the gate.

Quenthel was way ahead, rushing in and jumping through the gate before neither of them could register she had done so.

_**In the same empty chamber**_

She teleported herself into the great gateway chamber and sighed, "Another world, another chance to find him..."

How long has she been traveling between the worlds, again? Lost count. It felt like a sad existence and yet it wasn't. She had seen a lot in her time, meeting them all over again. Once they were finished or passed away, she moved on. Not once has she found him, though. It's getting bothersome. Always, he slips away from her grasp.

His son remained though, so she settled for him at times. Sometimes she'd marry him, sometimes they fought and sometimes they went off for a little quickie with each other once in a while. Patterns quickly arose.

There was, though, this one time in which things were more... decadent. She didn't wish to think on that for a while.

Wait, where was she again? Oh, right, the gateway to Ostia. She wondered what was different here, this time. The usual was that he lived with someone else, other than that, there wasn't much change with their lives.

Hell, maybe she'd just go and ra-

That other portal came out of nowhere. Not willing to draw attention to herself, she rendered herself invisible while waiting for whatever would come out.

First out came a short black-skinned beauty in a modest white dress, jumping through and landing on the causeway a feet away from her. A few seconds later, came an equally skinned man, handsome and skilled, she could smell the magic on him a mile away. He floated and landed next to the woman.

The portal remained open for a long time, allowing a large number to pour through before it closed. Most were black of skin and white of hair, one was white of hair and pale of skin though she was akin to the blackies.

One stood out, though. In light blue armor and having a long sword attached to his back and wearing a helmet, his face was definitely not human. He had arrived in a large truck-like vehicle, which surely held more of his kind. She could only spot one human and he was wearing more medieval-ish armor compared to the rest.

The first female spoke harsh words, her voice carrying sweetness within that angry tone and then the nonhuman gestured. She was right in that the truck carried more of his kind and they were carrying materials in boxes. Some of the boxes were floating by themselves.

Then the first man spoke in a calculated tone and then they moved out, the human and his two female friends followed nervously.

The invisible spectator just had to smile to herself. This time, things were definitely different.

* * *

Maneuvering through underground tunnels based on memories alone was not easy. Gromph recalled that there was a dragon down in these parts and everything would be over if they ran into him.

Fortune guiding them, the drow and the githyanki found themselves at a large cavern illuminated by the roots of the "World Tree" up top.

"This is a good spot," Hune reported after scouting out ahead. "The cavern is empty save for bookshelves and there is running water down there."

"Any signs of great beasts lumbering about?" Quenthel asked of him.

"None, Mistress," The mercenary replied. "Even a dragon would need a place to rest, and it is not here if there is any."

"Then we'll establish a small base of operations here," Osyrimon spoke. He motioned for the truck to move in and it drove in first ahead of the column stopping by the water bank. The engineers in there came out with their construction material. "Alright, what is our next step from here, Archmage?"

Gromph looked around to determine which was the way up from there. Once again, Miyazaki's memories served him well. But he needed to hide it. "Oblodra, send your scouts ahead to see if they can find any fast route to the surface above."

Oblodra nodded and went on first with twelve of his men.

"Duskryn," Gromph addressed the young heir. "You are to stay here for a while and await further orders. We'll send for you."

"Understood," Duskryn spoke softly before going down to the engineers. Duskryn was a house on the rise, but to have a _szarkai_ in their ranks and as the heir to whole house... matron Berni'th had cause to hide her from the rest of the city. No doubt her heir was a powerful cleric in her own right. Not too bad to look at, either.

He shrugged off those thoughts and turned to the others. "The rest of us should assume disguises and go with names different from our real ones. We are to infiltrate, primarily, and therefore, we're to eschew mention of anything that goes back to our real identities." A hand was raised. "Yes?"

"Is that why matron Baenre is wearing a white dress?"

"No, Wysiwyg. I just simply love the color white. It goes with my eyes." Several who were there just had to resist giggling, lest they lose credibility in front of the rookies. "Just think of some human names for yourself to use and then assume an illusion portraying yourself as human."

"Shouldn't be too hard for me," The warrior-priest said. "I already got the second part done." This time a few of them chuckled.

_Think of the final result, _Gromph's Evil whispered in his ear. _It'll pay off eventually. Miyazaki is secure so we can focus on getting what we want._

_As long as we don't kill anyone she'd consider important to her,_ Gromph replied to him.

Anything could happen at this point now. Gromph would be certain that if anything were to go wrong, it would. No plan ever went as planned so you had to adapt to new situations constantly. The drow were masters at scheming and intrigue, so he could handle whatever came their way.

Probably.

_**And now we cut to the Road of Random Accidents**_

All six of them panted, heavily. That Girallion was not an easy pushover for them. Well, two of them could have handled it on their own but the other four couldn't. Before that, there was the stampede of Kodo beasts made out of tofu.

And the creepy dolls before that.

Followed by those weird frog people.

And then the falling rocks out of nowhere.

"Okay, this is getting real. I'm starting to think that this god of chaos is out to try and kill us," said Nailbrain between his panting.

"Hehe, no," Jarlaxle responded. "If he really was out to kill us, then he'd just do it himself. Deities tend to be like that."

"So, we go on?" Huelun asked their competent leader.

"Look, if we just bear with this until the end of the road, we can get out of here without having to cross this road again," Fashtar told them. Then Thorgar freaked out all of a sudden and ran off to throw himself out the window. "That wasn't there five seconds ago," was all the wizard could note.

Thorgar landed behind them two seconds later. "Ow."

"Thorgar, would it be too much to ask what spooked you?" Gorim walked over to give their great warrior some healing.

"I... saw one of those badgers, like the one we gave that girl," Thorgar replied after taking a few breaths.

"A Honey badger?"

"Yes, that. Except this was the big dire version of one, big as a bear and teeth covered in blood. And it was looking straight at me like it was hungry."

"We didn't see anything," said Huelun.

"Okay, we move on." Jarlaxle took the next first step. "We're here on a mission to get to the other side of this road. Right now, we're in the calm of the storm before he throws the worst he has at us."

Then he fell down a hole. "Jarlaxle?" The group cried for him. "Hey, you can't die just yet, you still owe me a drink!" Huelun yelled after him.

"Hey!" He yelled back cheerfully. "There's a lounge down here! You would not believe the sights I'm- Hey, they're bringing in girls and men onto the stage for dancing! You gotta see this!"

Feeling like they had caught a break, they jumped down the hole and found out it was a lounge filled with people drinking, dancers performing and everyone having a jolly good time. The downside was that there was a lot of debris lying around, like broken chairs and tables, a window was broken.

"Okay, this seems good," Fashtar said. "But I'm holding out my gun just in case this all goes wrong. I just know something will."

_**Continued in part 3: Getting acquainted, Sparring matches, Unrumble!, A date (date-peepers included)**_


End file.
